Heart of Metal
by TheConsortium2
Summary: Metal Sonic has a new plan. One that will take him to a twisted world where no one - not even Sonic - will be able to stop him from getting his revenge. But there's something else happening to Metal... something even he didn't expect.
1. Deadly Resolve

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are copyright SEGA.**

**This is the revised version of my first story. It was deleted at one point, but since has returned. I cannot say if it has improved from the version previous, although I certainly hope it has. Many changes have been made in plot, dialogue, scene transition, and more. I hope you give it a read and find it worth your time.**

**Alright, I'm done bothering you. **

_Chapter 1_

_**Deadly Resolve**_

His eyes glowed dimly in the darkness, scanning the dark room with his backlight vision. With a steady pattern, he walked out of the shadows cast by the flickering electric lights. He was active once more. Despite the shut down order issued so many times through his system, the mecha had reactivated again.

It was the same mecha that had been built to destroy Sonic. The same mecha that nearly controlled the world. The one who had brought the greatest together to be destroyed in a single stroke. But he was also the mecha that had failed. He was Metal Sonic.

Everything made sense now. It took years of brooding and plotting his enemy's great defeat. All of that had been for nothing. His only purpose had been to destroy Sonic, but that was beyond his capability level. After his failed plans, simple losses and ultimate defeat, he had learned a function that was not intended in his original programming. Metal Sonic had learned to quit. He had now walked in the footsteps of previous inventions and plots. He was no different than the rest of that madman's creations.

The robot sighed, projecting the appropriate amount of anguish into his mechanized voice. Once again, he decided to watch his latest failure play out in his mind. Almost three months ago, he and Sonic had fought at the edge of the atmosphere, parting blows until his mechanical frame could take no more. Even his superior form, the Metal Overlord, had not been enough to beat Sonic. The metal hedgehog copy had fashioned the Overlord himself, and successfully transformed with enough spare energy to last a millennia.

_ Why had it not worked?_

Metal Sonic's mechanical mind searched through his memory banks at an amazing speed. In half of a second, he loaded the file containing the closest battle he ever had with his archrival. Mentally viewing the data he had stored from his defeat, the mecha watched with an intense, hawk-like focus.

It began as it always did, with Sonic and his two companions dashing around while he prepared his crystalline attack. They were struck rather hard by the first attack, but easily recovered by the time he prepared the second. Four capture missiles launched from his fingers, and he watched as the echidna, which looked more like a small red dot from his perspective, was overtaken by one. The containment barrier was quickly broken, and he quickly rejoined the other two.

The rest of the fight played out in his mind, and he eventually found himself near the end. A flash of gold blazed against the darkened sky, followed by several gashes in his mechanical frame. Thunder sounded from somewhere in the background as he slowly sank downward.

It wasn't long until the struggle was over, and Metal Sonic felt a strange pain as he remembered the experience of losing again. He was convinced that losing to Sonic was beyond his control. Despite the countless hours he spent planning everything from locking up Eggman, to gathering up his enemies, to the complicated data scanning, he would not have beaten Sonic.

Why was it Sonic who always won? Metal Sonic had struggled with the question for a long time now. He had his friends with him, that was a possible reason. He was never without help. Metal's initial plan had been to destroy Sonic and his friends in a single blow so they would witness his newly formed powers. His plan had backfired.

But he had brought them all together for a reason. Once Sonic was defeated, his friends would be next. They had proven to be the most troublesome, and therefore would likely interfere with his plans for the future. So he had brought them all together to be destroyed. With Sonic gone and nowhere to run, it would be mere exercise. Next, he intended to eliminate Eggman, override the controls for the Shadow Androids, construct new robots and siege the planet. Then he would rule the world as the Metal Overlord, the supreme being of Mobius, conquer of the world.

Instead he was here, rusting in a carrier which was running out of fuel as he pondered aimlessly. His great mind was being wasted, but he didn't care. His Metal Overlord form couldn't be repeated. There wasn't enough chaos energy to sustain it. Metal couldn't pilot the carrier; the controls refused to work and he didn't want to fix them.

He did not know why.

Metal Sonic could only guess as to what was happening on the planet's surface. G.U.N. was probably going to discover the ship soon, and shoot it down over the ocean to keep it from landing in a civilian area. Shadow was most likely resuming his work as an agent. It was possible he recovered from his amnesia. There was also Omega, who had destroyed all of the Android models to prevent them from being used. The last E-100 Series robot was now rusting away in the engine room, where Metal had left him.

It was his fault for making him… _angry_.

The thought of such a powerful emotion made him tense somehow, and he enjoyed it. The heated pulsation of rage had driven his hand to strike Omega down. The feeling of it made him think he was powerful. And maybe he had been. Wherever that power was, it had left him now.

Purpose had left him just like his temporary emotions.

Metal Sonic leaned against the steel wall. He liked to believe there was more of a reason left for him to be than to hesitantly wait until his power drained and he was left as an empty blue shell. Yet here he was. Slowly fading away on a failing vessel. In a way, he was dying. But Metal wasn't afraid. Metal Sonic wasn't capable of fear.

Sonic didn't seem to be capable of fear either. That was odd, at least from a machine's perspective. Sonic was always "living on the edge." To further use the phrase, he was running on the edge. Sonic had friends all around him, there was no question as to why he was so happy. With his friends depending on him and helping him there was no way he could give up or be afraid.

_ That's it. _

Metal bolted upright from his leaning position. All he had to do was get rid of Sonic's friends. Remove them all, one by one. Then Sonic would go into depression without his friends whimsical little comforts. Perhaps then he would become afraid. The evil robot relished the thought of Sonic begging for mercy. But then Metal Sonic leaned against the wall again.

_ It won't work_, he thought shortly, banishing the thought as he sank to the floor. _Nothing ever works. _

Metal reconsidered the idea.

_ But what use will it be if I do not try?_

Metal Sonic stood up, methodically walking towards the door as he debated with himself. He trudged out of the dark room where he had imprisoned his creator. The door slid open, revealing the Annihilator's black styled surface platform. Gray clouds drifted by lazily in the flawless night sky. Many bright stars were visible, and gleamed like tiny pieces of glitter that had been strewn about the atmosphere. Metal still remained on the grand Egg Fleet lead ship that he had used to try and stop Sonic. It was the same ship that he and his organic rival had fought on, dueling to the death.

_ I have to try again, one last try_, Metal Sonic promised to himself, ending his debate. _Just one last try._

…

The moon's pale reflection wavered over the surface of the water, illuminating the tips of the waves as they gently cascaded over one another. It reminded her of a game of leap frog in a way, although she couldn't recall how long it had been since she last played the game. The scene was strangely funny, but not from a comical perspective. It was both interesting and distracting to watch one little wave roll over another, only to be overtaken by the one behind it. Other people might think that she was just easily amused, but it was nice to have something else to think about, other than... that.

Her mother always told her that when you get knocked down, you always have a choice to get back up. This was one of those times.

"What's wrong, Amy?" Cream asked, waking Amy from her dreamy daze.

Amy looked at the young rabbit. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Cream."

"Are you thinking about Sonic?" Cream guessed. Amy was surprised at her accuracy.

"Well, sort of. How did you know?" Amy gaped a little.

Cream giggled, then smiled cheerfully. "You get this dreamy look on your face."

Amy laughed a little, but then Rouge walked by, causing her to automatically sit up straighter and scowl slightly. To celebrate Eggman's arrest, the bat girl had invited everyone to her new apartment complex by the lakeside. Most people had come, but some didn't bother to reply.

Shadow had been invited, but no one knew if he even read the letter. Quite predictably, he didn't show up. Knuckles insisted it was a trap so the treasure huntress could steal the Master Emerald, but he came anyway. A few other people were there too, including Tails and Big. No one actually invited the Chaotix, but both Charmy and Vector had shown up regardless.

Eggman couldn't bother them anymore, so they had no reason to worry about robots falling from the sky and attacking them, as such had happened on one occasion.

Some time ago, Sonic had cornered the doctor in one of his bases, destroyed his army down to the last robot, and took him into the waiting arms of G.U.N. After that, Sonic seemed more bored than anything else. He hadn't gotten the chance to fight anything for almost two months now, which encouraged him to run through the city more often than he used to. Sometimes he had almost nothing to do, and Amy's invitations to have tea didn't seem to relieve him of his boredom. They even seemed to cause him to leave more often. It nearly broke Amy's heart every time he disappeared for week-long trips, but she never told him that.

"I know!" Cream suddenly said, getting up from her seat next to Amy. "I'm going to go talk to Mister Sonic!"

"Hmm... huh? What about Sonic?" the pink hedgehog asked in puzzlement. Honestly, she had to keep her head out of the clouds!

The rabbit giggled. "You'll see."

Cream happily skipped off to Sonic and Knuckles, who were situated at the grill. The Emerald Guardian was doing most of the cooking, while the blue hedgehog just talked. He was eating a chilidog, his third, while Knuckles looked suspiciously over his shoulder at Rouge.

"I'm telling you, Sonic," Knuckles said for the fourth time that night. "One minute she's going to sneak off while I'm not watching her."

"I thought you had someone guarding that big, green rock of yours," Sonic said in a mimicking sort of way.

"I do," Knuckles affirmed, not reacting to the insult to the Master Emerald. "I asked Espio to take care of it, just for tonight."

Sonic felt someone tug at his glove. He turned around, looking down at a small rabbit.

"Hey, Cream," Sonic smiled, kneeling down so he was at eye level with her. "Do you want some food? What'll it be, a hotdog or a hamburger?"

Cream smiled sweetly. "Will you go on a date with Amy?" she asked.

Sonic was caught off guard by the abruptness of the question. "Um… did she ask you to say that?"

The rabbit put her mouth to Sonic's ear and whispered conspiratorially, "Amy doesn't know that we're talking about this."

Sonic tried his best to keep smiling, but he felt the grin tugging at his lips weaken. The matter was something more complicated than Cream could handle, and he felt sympathetic for her concerns. She only wanted what was best for her friend, and Sonic could respect that. But Amy...

"Uh... well, Cream. You see, Amy and I are... just friends, and..." Sonic skeptically glanced at Amy, who was staring at Cream with a similar look. It seemed as though Cream was telling the truth.

"Will you go with her to Twinkle Park tomorrow?" Cream asked innocently. "I was going to go with her, but I have lessons that day."

Although Cream presented the question harmlessly enough, Sonic's head was spinning with several things that could go wrong. On one hand, he didn't want to disappoint Cream, who didn't understand that dating wasn't as simple it seemed. Amy was nice to hang out with, and he had discovered that her personality contained more mature points that he had expected. However, she was always trying to impress him, and seemed too... overcommitted.

On the other hand, most of the experiences were endurable, although that trip to the movies had ended in disaster. Not an episode he wanted to repeat.

"Well…um..." Sonic started, only to have Cream give him her puppy dog eyes. "I… well, fine. Jeez, kid, you'd make a good salesperson. I'll take her to the park tomorrow."

"Thank you Mister Sonic!" Cream exclaimed, hugging him tightly. "Amy will be so happy!"

"Um… Tell her I'll be at her apartment at, like, eleven tomorrow."

Cream smiled before flaunting back to Amy. Sonic rubbed the back of his head, wondering what he had gotten himself into.

"What did he say?" the pink hedgehog immediately blurted, suspicious of her friend's secrecy.

Cream smiled innocently and recited, "Sonic's taking you to the park tomorrow at eleven. He's going to pick you up at your house, so you had better be ready."

Amy gasped, feeling an explosion of happiness. "Thank you so much, Cream! I need to get home so I can get some sleep! Vanilla probably wants you home. Do you want to go back now?"

Cream yawned, "Yes, please. Just let me find Cheese."

The rabbit left, coming back moments later with the blue chao in her arms. Cheese was smiling widely, and had chocolate at the corners of his mouth.

"He was eating Charmy's ice cream," Cream explained. The chao sighed happily.

Another little laughed escaped from Amy, and she glanced at Sonic on impulse. He wasn't even looking her direction, but she still felt a kind of nervous satisfaction from his answer. Sonic had agreed to not only come with her to the park, but _take_ her, and that made a world of a difference. She knew things would be different this time.

…

Metal Sonic's mechanical mind processed information at an astounding speed. He had already formulated a theory, and was considering the next step. The only way to counter his enemies allies would be to have one of his own. Not knowing when the ship's tormented engine would fail, he decided to act as quickly as possible. This time, he wanted support, something that he might be able to consider a companion. Metal thought for a moment before activating his search function.

[System Search Enabled: /Processing/ Process Complete:/ 247 Items listed/ Displaying:]

Chao.

That was the first item displayed, as well as the most predictable. The definition of "chao" was short, but descriptive:

**chao n. 1a.** A small creature commonly domesticated as a pet and is able to take on the characteristics of its owner. **b. **An animal that has an unstable genetic structure. **c. **A descendant of the mythical God of Destruction, Chaos. **2a. **_Slang _A term for someone who is needy.

Metal Sonic pondered this. It seemed to him as though a chao would make an appropriate companion. But where would he get one? Less than four months ago, he had taken a chao from one of Sonic's friends. This was necessary to copy its chaos data, thus verifying his newly produced chaos field. He believed that it had been chocolate brown in color.

But that was beside the point. Chao were small in size, and made for naturally good spies, but it would be difficult to train one for such a task. Getting it would be near impossible; obtaining one legally required a handler's license. They could be purchased by other means at a black market deal, although he was nowhere near such an establishment, and going to such great lengths would prove irrational. Not to mention having to raise it. That would be absurd.

So why not create one instead? Programming code was easy compared to the reprehensible chore of training an organism for practical purposes. It seemed like a far off idea, but his return to the fray needed some monument of dedication, mostly to keep himself motivated.

Metal did not understand _why_ he needed to be motivated, only that it would be important if he intended to continue his current endeavors.

And so, he began to collect parts. They weren't hard to find. Many random pieces of scrap lay scattered in the general area. They were merely pieces and components of robots that Sonic had destroyed, at least partially. It only made sense to him that he was building his new resolve from what remained of the old one. That, of course, presented itself as an excellent motivation.

Laying the pieces out n the floor, he drafted a mental model of the chao which he could refer to during assembly. He managed to create a makeshift blowtorch using a broken flamethrower and half-empty gas tank, which proved invaluable the construction process. With the aid of pictures and mental images, he managed to meld the steel into an accurate exterior which would suit the artificial chao. After one hour thirty seven minutes and forty two seconds, the body, head, and appendages were completed, although the model was, rather sad albeit accurate. No matter. That could be fixed later.

Next, Metal Sonic constructed the circuitry. This was a painstaking process of crisscrossing wires and positioning electrical components, but he eventually finished. Once that was done, he searched for a computer chip to place inside his new companion's body. After several robots around the fortress were raided of mechanical parts, he finally found a chip which had been taken from a robot with basic artificial intelligence. The rest he had to program in, which he did by loading massive amounts of code using a rather beaten, but operable, console.

Once finished, he activated the power modules of the "chao". Its crimson red eyes lit up at a sluggish pace. It shut down multiple times, and he had to keep restarting it to see if anything would result. Finally, it was able to activate its visual receptors, although he knew that the feedback was probably very poor. It was a shameful palled gray, and the parts were roughly assembled, but he intended to fix it later on. The fake chao seemed confused, and kept looking at Metal, then the wall, the floor, and back to Metal again. Its contemptible visual reception, in stark contrast to its complicated programming, would most likely leave it mentally scrambled for a while.

"Hello," Metal greeted, speaking for the first time in days. "I am you master, Metal Sonic."

It didn't seem to notice him at first. Metal Sonic thought for a moment as he watched it turn its head from side to side. Perhaps its sound receptors hadn't kicked in yet. It occurred to Metal that he should name it while he waited. He had never named anything before, other than his Overlord Form. But after a few moments, an idea came to him.

"You are Neon, my creation. I made you to be my associate." The newly named chao, Neon, only stared at Metal as he talked, its eyes occasionally wandering aimlessly.

Metal Sonic decided that it needed further adjustments to fully operate. That was another thing. Should _it_ be designated as a _he _instead? Metal was a copy of a Sonic, and that meant he was, from a philosophical point of view, male. Or just an imitation of one, really. But nevertheless...

Sighing for an unapparent reason, the mechanical hedgehog picked up his creation and walked to the doors leading into the hallway. After some walking, he found the hanger, were he had not been since he first loaded onto the Egg Fleet to take what was to be permanent command of the Eggman Empire.

The setting was different than what he expected.

Tanks of raw fuel, crates and wrecked aircraft covered the hanger floor. Metal Sonic managed to find one of his creator's floating pods, stashed behind a crate of small airplane wings. No doubt it had been intended as an escape vehicle for his creator. It wasn't the most advanced Metal Sonic had seen, but it would get them safely to his destination if he made the correct calculations.

After dragging it out from its hiding place and replacing a broken starter, the pod was ready for a test drive. When he was able to confirm that the antigravity systems worked, the metal hedgehog refueled it and estimated how much time he had to get to land and back before the cruiser continued its course past Central City.

Thirty minutes for safe landing. Twenty for lift-off location. One hour for total time on land, including initiating liftoff. Twenty-five minutes to get back into the cruiser.

Estimated total time: two hours and fifteen minutes.

_ Perfect,_ he thought to himself.

Metal Sonic easily located the fox's lab. It was a dark brown color in the pale moonlight, and impressive in size. The wide, airplane hangar doors were at the end of a larger expansion of the research building. This area no doubt contained his airplane, assuming that he had only one. The hangar doors faced a large runway for the plane to access easily. It was an impressive establishment, Metal thought, given that it was made by a mere child.

He chose to land a safe distance away from the building in case the fox was still awake, or might return home if he was out. After concealing the pod behind some nearby bushes, he picked up Neon and circled the building several times. No lights were on. Once he had decided it was safe, he snuck his way closer, drawing closer to the hangar doors. Neon attempted to struggle his way out of Metal's grip, but it was ignored.

Upon reaching the door, Metal Sonic set Neon down and hacked the control panel on the wall. Although it was more difficult than he expected, he gained access to the door controls, and ordered them open. The doors slid open, making a loud electric humming noise as they did so. Metal Sonic was alarmed at first, and quickly took Neon before dashing into the brush. For several slow minutes, nothing happened, and Metal Sonic assumed that the fox was not home to hear what had gone on.

Criticizing himself for not being more careful, he entered the lab and switched on the light. The lab had rustic orange walls and several neatly organized shelves for tools. There was a work large table close to the middle of the workspace where unfinished gadgets lay dormant. He walked over to the fox's bi-plane, the _Blue Tornado_.

Metal cleared some space by roughly shoving off several devices and tools from the work table. He set down Neon on blueprints to a device which he immediately deemed insignificant.

"I'm going to turn you off for now," Metal Sonic said to his tiny companion.

The metallic chao gave no response, other than a blank stare. Metal Sonic took out the chip in the back of Neon's head, shutting it down. Once Neon was off, Metal Sonic began to take off parts, customized his systems, added body plates, dissembling the _Blue Tornado_ in the process.

After some time, Metal had completely changed the chao. He worked for half an hour until he finally placed the upgraded chip into the new body and waited for Neon to boot up. The chao's eyes lit up slowly, they became their usual faint red. It looked at Metal with recognition

"Chao, chao," the robotic chao droned monotonously, imitating the cheerful tone of an organic chao.

It was mostly blue, having been recreated from parts of the biplane. Large sections of gray still stood out from the rest of the color, but it was passable. There was no dot above its head like a normal chao, Metal critiqued, but that was a superfluous detail anyway, and one that he didn't care for. One of the bi-plane's miniature rockets had been removed, which Metal Sonic had placed on Neon's back. Although ineffective at the moment, he could certainly make it useful later.

It, or perhaps, _he_ tried to say something, but all that Metal Sonic could make out were several blips and other odd computerized noises. His sound system wasn't calibrated yet. Neon was picked up by his creator, who held him in one hand.

"Let's leave, Neon," Metal Sonic said shortly as he picked his chao and walked towards the exit. He stopped at the doorway and purposefully tossed a small piece of metal that he had taken from the ship on the floor.

If capable, he would have grinned. His ruse made him feel... clever. Then, Metal Sonic gave the room one last look before turning around and striding back into the night. Although unnecessary, he smashed the control panel outside with a clenched fist.

The metal bolt rolled on the floor, turning sideways and falling over. Printed in red on the upside of the bolt, was a circle shaped head with half-circle teeth coming from the bottom and a large moustache in the middle. It was the infamous insignia of Doctor Eggman.


	2. Shards of Memory

_Chapter 2_

_**Shards of Memory**_

Amy slowly opened her eyes. It was dark. Having no memory of drawing the curtains before she went to sleep, she got up, reasoning that she had fallen out of bed during the night. She moved her hands around in the darkness, trying to locate her mattress. Slowly, she realized that the surface of the floor was extremely cold, and solid. It was definitely not the hard wood flooring in her bedroom. In addition to that, the room was rather frigid, although moderately so. She could have sworn that she had turned up the thermostat last night.

Amy gasped as she remembered that she had a date with Sonic. Still hopeful, she searched for the red light of her electronic alarm clock, wanting to know how much time she had to get ready. The alarm clock had been set for seven AM to give her enough time to brush her hair and get dressed. Maybe it was still really early, and the sun hadn't risen yet. That would explain why there was no light in the room.

Suddenly, she noticed a red light several feet away. It was her alarm clock! It was at the correct height, and the red was the same color. Amy felt puzzled nonetheless. Had she gone that far away from the bed in her sleep?

Walking towards the light, she felt a strange, ominous feeling. It made her want to turn around and think things through, but she suppressed it. The most likely explanation was that the furnace wasn't working, and she had hit the floor harder than she though. Reaching out her gloved hand out, she felt the top of the device.

The surface was too hard, too round, and the lights looked like… eyes. Suddenly, she gasped, stepping backwards as the red light rose higher, becoming brighter. The light was now positioned a head higher, looking down at her.

It spoke.

"I see that you are awake," said an eerie robotic voice, seeming amused by her wandering.

"M-metal Sonic!" Amy gaped, partially shocked, but mostly afraid.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid! You knew this wasn't your room, and now look what happened!_

"It is a pleasure to see you again, Amy," the robot said, taking a slight bow. Either he was mocking her or amusing himself. Amy found it creepy.

"Y-you tricked me. Why did you pretend to be my alarm clock?" Amy backed up some more as the robot walked forward, seeming to want to be closer.

"It was not intentional, I assure you," he claimed, seeming to want to communicate that he was sorry.

Amy felt herself bump into the wall. She couldn't move back any further.

"Perhaps, Amy, you are wondering where I have chosen to contain you."

"Actually, I'm willing to suppress my curiosity if you just _let me go_!" Amy suddenly reached for her hammer, only to find that it wasn't there.

Metal Sonic seemed to have read the look on her face.

"I took it from you," he said flatly.

"What do you mean you _took_ it?" Amy growled, but Metal Sonic seemed completely unnerved. "You can't just take my hammer!"

Amy realized that she was stuck between the robot and the wall. She turned her head to and fro, looking for a visible exit. It was too dark. There was no way she could find a way out.

"Do you want to know what it is that I want?" Metal Sonic inquired, ignoring her protests.

"I don't really care, but if you insist," Amy said, trying to determine if she could somehow use his weight to flip him over.

She had done it with other, larger people who had threatened her before, usually by waiting until their weight was shifted unevenly, then disrupting their balance. Unfortunately, Metal Sonic seemed aware of this. Either that, or was just plain lucky.

"Very well. Perhaps you can guess what my primary function is."

Amy paused momentarily. It was a simple question, and she knew the answer, but saying it made her cringe inside. "To destroy Sonic."

"Correct. As you may have guessed by now, you are part of a plot to remove him. Permanently."

"I don't get it. Why are you telling me?" Amy asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

"Because I will give you a choice," Metal Sonic said, turning around and walking a short distance from her, which relieved her greatly.

"I don't like it already," Amy said disapprovingly.

Metal Sonic turned around. In his hand he held a yellow jewel the size of a large baseball. It was a Chaos Emerald.

"I am offering you power. Control." He neared closer, holding the gem out as if trying to give it to her. "Imagine, the authority to call thousands of subject to bend to your will. The ability to crush nations, destroy cities, and take lives. Or even, to create. To destroy the evil that purges the planet and replace it with peace. No more poverty, hunger, or transgression. I can give you it all."

He forced the emerald into her hand, making Amy grasp the jewel until she could feel the surface of its facets even with her gloves on. The emerald seemed to pulsate with energy, faintly illuminating the darkness. Amy pushed it away until Metal Sonic held it alone.

"I don't like power," Amy told him, backing up until she was against the wall again. "You can keep it to yourself."

"But how do you know…" Metal said, holding up the gem, wanting her to take it, "…if you have never had it before."

Amy's face became serious, her expression explaining enough about what she thought.

"How can _you_ understand what power is? Have you ever done any of those things? Well?"

Metal Sonic gave no reply.

"Have you ever killed anyone, or destroyed anything more than the occasional training robot? Have you ever brought any justice other than what Eggman told you was law? Face it, you may know what power is, but you have never used it."

Metal Sonic said nothing, only putting his arm which held the Chaos Emerald down. He stared at her for a few moments, and Amy could almost feel a slight tension in the air. It felt like... anger?

"I see. If you do not want what I offer, then it will be withheld from you. But, later, perhaps, you will change your mind."

Turning away, Metal Sonic vanished into the darkness. As the sound of his footsteps retreated, Amy sat on the ground, pulling her knees closer to herself. Her head hung low, and she suddenly felt very desperate.

"S-sonic," she sobbed, "where are you?"

…

Sonic tapped his foot impatiently as a uniformed guard scanned him. He was in the G.U.N. maximum security prison, waiting for the protocol scan to finish. Commander Tower had been called just for Sonic's arrival. G.U.N. had requested Sonic's presence at the prison before, but he had been too busy with interviews and newscasts. That, and he really didn't really want to go anyway.

Matter of fact, Sonic wouldn't have even stepped foot in the prison if Tails hadn't convinced him that Eggman needed checking up on.

"All right, you're clear," the guard said, lowering the scanning device in his hand.

Sonic was led by the guard through a large hallway. They passed several other uniformed men and a small convoy of guards escorting a prisoner. He was human, with large muscles that seemed to tightly fit into the strict prison uniform. Grinning darkly, the human scowled at Sonic and made a rude racial joke. The guards quickly chastised him and moved him along, but seemed to do nothing more. Sonic tried not to think about it.

They saw no other prisoners, which was normal, considering they were on the opposite wing of the containment sector. Eggman however, was now in one of the interrogation rooms closer to the exterior.

Sonic's escort stopped in front of a door, knocking quickly.

"Enter," a stern voice replied.

The escort opened the door, then motioned for Sonic to go inside. Sonic walked in, the guard shutting the door behind him. The room was fairly large for on office space. The furniture struck Sonic as dull, and the room had little decoration other than doctrines and schedules. The thing that stood out the most was the flag of the United Federations in the corner and the large wood desk in the center – not to mention the man sitting behind it.

He was dressed in a dark gray uniform, and his expression was serious. His hair was as white as the gloves that he wore, but the most striking thing about him was his eyes. One was a light hazel, while the other was deep green. That meant he was heterochromatic, and the coloration was not partial, but complete. Sonic was also surprised to see that he was not wearing anything more impressive than the marks that showed his authority.

"Sonic the hedgehog, it's a pleasure to meet you," the man greeted austerely, offering out his hand for Sonic to shake.

They shook hands. His grip was very firm.

"Abraham Tower, Commander of G.U.N." the man recited authoritatively, but with a hint of pride showing through.

"Nice to meet you," Sonic formally replied. He couldn't wait to get out of there. "I understand that you want me to talk to one of your more 'uncooperative' prisoners."

"Precisely."

The commander led Sonic out into the hallway again, where they walked to another sector of the prison. This time, Sonic saw no one else in the hallway as he was led to one of the interrogation rooms.

Just outside was a glass window allowing a full view of the room. Inside were white walls and a simple desk and chairs with a large man sitting in the one facing the door.

It was strange to see Eggman dressed in anything but his red waistcoat and black attire. But to see him in a gray prisoner attire was stranger still. They had even taken away his glasses, which exposed his gentle blue eyes. For a moment, Sonic wondered if this was the same man he had fought since his first encounter at the Green Hill Zone.

"You stay here while I make him a little more talkative," Commander Tower said, then curtly walked in.

The commander sat in front of Eggman, looking as serious as he had in the office. He seemed irritated too. Eggman had caused him quite a lot of trouble.

"Good morning, doctor," the commander greeted loudly, making sure Sonic could hear him through the speakers outside the room. His voice was thick was sarcasm. "I'm sorry that we couldn't get you a larger cell, all of our best were on Prison Island, which you took the liberty of destroying."

_Is he trying to talk about a light subject? _Sonic wondered.

"Not to mention the destruction of Central City at the hands of your pet, Chaos," the commander continued. "Who, by the way, has been extracted from the Master Emerald and is in a G.U.N. high security lab being stabilized."

Sonic was shocked. He quickly closed his mouth once he realized he had been gaping. How did they get past Knuckles to remove Chaos from the Master Emerald? What happened to Tikal?

And why did he just tell that to Eggman?

The commander continued talking.

"But I suppose all of that is nothing compared to your latest feat. Like letting loose that homicidal robotic monster of yours that nearly attacked the United Federations!"

Commander Tower slammed his fist onto the table, making a loud banging noise. The commander was breathing heavily, his face a light shade of red. Sonic wait apprehensively for Eggman to say something.

Eggman never stirred once.

The commander regained his composure and turned around, leaving the room.

"It's your turn, hedgehog," he stated, say nothing more as he closed the door behind him.

Sonic decided not to take the profiling personally, and entered the room. Sitting leisurely in the chair opposite of Eggman, Sonic leaned back and but his feet on the table.

"What's up, doc'?" the hero jeered, wearing a great big grin.

Eggman said nothing.

"So how long until they let you out of here? I'm looking forward to blowing up another one of your toys."

Still nothing. The scientist's eyes were giving him no hints.

"Aw, come on. Your best friend comes to visit you, and you won't even say hi. Would it help if I brought some chips?"

Sonic noticed Eggman's eyebrow twitch.

_Funny how all that teasing gets to him. He's been through so much of it I guess he can't help but be sensitive to it. _

"Would you happen to be hatching any evil plots in that mind of yours?" Sonic pressed. "Did you catch that doc? _Hatching_."

Eggman's soft blue eyes seemed to flicker with life, as if he had just woken up.

"Listen well, Sonic," he began, "the only evil plots I'll be hatching are _outside_ of this prison."

"Oh yeah?" Sonic pretended to suppress a yawn. "And how do you intend to get there?"

"I will be leaving this prison. Today."

Without another word, Eggman lowered his head and spoke no more.

Knowing that it would take time to get anything more out of him, Sonic got up and left the room. Commander Tower was giving loud commands to the guards in the immediate area. He seemed to have taken Eggman's threat very seriously.

"I want you to escort him back to his cell! Security is to be doubled. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!" the guards saluted in unison, retrieving a quiet Eggman from the room and escorting him down the hall.

After Eggman and his escorts left the hallway, Commander Tower spoke.

"I understand that you came here not on G.U.N. request, but on personal matters. If I may ask, for what reason did you come here?"

"Just to make sure that he was nice and cozy," Sonic said with a shrug. "That's all."

"I see. In the meantime, it's required that you sign some paperwork before leaving."

Sonic suppressed a groan. "Okay."

…

What seemed like hours later later, Sonic finished signing his name on twenty different pieces of paper before he was ready to leave. Getting up from his seat in the commander's office, Sonic placed the clipboard on the desk. Commander Tower was not there. He was personally overseeing the rehabilitation of a new prisoner. There was, however, a guard in the room to keep the office safe.

Suddenly, the room was illuminated with red as an loud alarm sounded. Sonic and the trooper shared surprised expressions.

"What's that?" Sonic asked as the guard yanked the door open.

"Someone signaled the alarm!" the trooper explained, striding down the hallway as he motioned Sonic to follow him. "The prison is going into lockdown mode."

Sonic couldn't help but think that Eggman was right. The strange alarm couldn't seem like anything but a sign of his plan in action.

"You wouldn't happen to have a drill scheduled for today, would you?" Sonic asked as the guard opened a door on the right.

"We don't have drills," he stated.

The trooper grabbed the walkie-talkie from his belt and started listening to a fast-paced warning from the operator.

"This is a code red situation," the trooper informed. "Eggman has left his cell. He's somewhere in the D-sector. We need to get there as quickly-"

Sonic didn't hear the rest of what the trooper was saying, as he was already halfway down the hall. The blue hero sped down the hallway, passing by the C-Sector. He swerved past armed men, not bothering to even glance at them as he rushed by.

_Well, can't say he didn't warn me, _Sonic thought, hearing shouts and gunshots as he neared the perimeter of the D-Sector.

The blue hedgehog screeched to a halt, stopping just outside of the entrance to the prison division that the guard mentioned. There was a scream as gunshots fired, followed by a crashing sound. Sonic rushed through the door way into a large space where several G.U.N. soldiers were firing rounds at a silver and black robot. It was somewhat humanoid, and had large scythes emerging from its arms. On its shoulders were disk-like saw blades, and on its back, a jet booster. 

_Well what do you know, it's a robot, _Sonic thought with a small grin.

One of the armed G.U.N. soldiers ran up to Sonic, heaving heavy breaths of exhaustion. Several men behind him provided cover fire, distracting their mechanical enemy.

Sonic was about to rush into the fight, but was stopped by the trooper.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," the soldier said, "the mecha has been identified as Jetblade, one of Eggman's most dangerous machines. I was told to provide you with information as to its weakness. The back of its jet is-"

"Yeah, yeah," Sonic said, hardly paying attention. "Jetlag, got it."

Sonic rushed passed the soldier, stopping in front of the two supporting troopers, right in the mecha's vision.

"Clear out! I got this thing handled," Sonic told the troops, cracking his knuckles as the Jetblade mecha activated its targeting system.

The mecha immediately jetted forward, blades extended out. Sonic sprang into the air, bouncing off the robot's head as it went past him. It lost its balance, skidding to the side to prevent itself from crashing. Sonic intended to spin dash it, but decided against it at risk of being skewered. The robot turned back around, activating its jet booster.

This time it slashed at him as it zoomed by, only to be kicked as Sonic sped past it. The robot backed up from Sonic, calculating a new strategy.

"C'mon!" Sonic sighed, pretending to be bored. "What's so dangerous about you anyway?"

The mecha lowered itself onto the ground, the circular blades on its shoulders spinning as its legs folded up tightly. It's head touched its chest while hemispherical shields emerged from its arms. It was compacted into a tight ball of steel, with blades placed in its center and outer edges. It propelled itself forward, creating tracks in the concrete floor as it came towards the dumbfounded hedgehog.

_Oh. That's what._

Sonic jumped over just in time, dodging the sharp teeth of the disks by only a few centimeters. He landed somewhat roughly, taking a shoulder glance at the robot as it came at him again.

_Okay, so a frontal approach is a bad idea. Somehow, it still uses its jet even when in its ball form. _

Dodging once more, Sonic jumped to the side, causing the ball to keep moving, shredding the concrete as it went by. He noticed how the blades were only aligned to go straight forward, therefore making a side approach the safest decision.

_If I can upset its momentum it should crash. If I hit it from the side that should nail it!_

Sonic curled up into a ball, spinning in place as the mecha came back for another hit. He spun forward, the robot making the same path as if the two were set for a collision course. Just as they were a short distance from each other, Sonic swerved to the side, turning back with just enough speed to hit the mecha on its shield plating.

The Jetblade mecha toppled over, hitting the wall with brutal force. The mecha expanded outward until it was no longer in its ball form, seeming crippled after the blow.

Almost thinking it was over, Sonic let out a sigh of relief. Just one more smash and it was finished. Done deal.

Suddenly, the mecha activated its jet again, but this time with greater speed. It crashed into Sonic head on, even though the hedgehog had tried to jump to avoid it. They fell to the ground, tumbling away from each other from the hit onto the concrete floor.

Sonic grunted before jumping back up.

Without warning, the mecha had sped forward while Sonic was down. It slashed at its opponent, cutting in the form of an X shape. Sonic leaned back until his head was as low as his knees, the swift edge of the steel slicing the air above him. Flipping himself over, Sonic kicked at the mecha's abdomen. It took the blow with minimal effectiveness, slashing at him with hardly a pause. Sonic ducked, swerved, and dived to avoid the steel scythes. 

_It's a little bit tougher than I thought._

The blue hedgehog slid under the mecha, knocking its legs out from underneath it. Kicking it so it fell away from him, Sonic jumped into the air. He curled into a ball, hurtling at the mecha's head. It avoided him just barely, causing him to crush one of its arms instead. The mecha swiped at him with its intact arm, only to miss once more.

Sonic jumped off the mecha, curled back into a ball and struck it again. Its other arm came off, and the robot fell over. Sonic hurled himself back into the air, curling into a sphere of sharp quills before striking the mecha straight through. The robot was reverted to crushed steel as a dash of blue sped through it. The Jetblade mecha fell over, destroyed.

_But I'm even tougher, _Sonic considered, smiling contentedly.

"It looks like Eggman's most powerful hunk of scrap has just been trashed," the blue hero gloated.

Sonic glanced over his shoulder, seeing that no one, not even a single G.U.N. soldier, was in sight. Confused, Sonic noticed a door opposite to where he entered. Upon opening it, he realized that it led to the outside area of the prison.

He ran out, stopping in the middle of the courtyard. G.U.N. troopers were looking up into the sky, at a large vessel in the air.

Close to the horizon was a large aerial transport, one that might even be considered some kind of mobile fortress. It was in bad repair, and the bright red paint that it usually donned had faded into a defective brown. Sonic knew that the ship was outfitted with heavy duty missiles and a mecha army stored inside, that he figured were in good condition no matter what the outside of the craft presented. The Egg Carrier, the doctor's most reliable escape vehicle, must have dispatched the mecha and waited out here for his arrival.

And it was getting away.

"Damn," Sonic cursed, reasoning that he was too far away to go back through the prison and still have time to chase after it. "I hate it when I look slow."

His fight with the mecha had been a delay. While Sonic had been battling the robot, Eggman had been using the precious seconds to escape from the prison while technically still _inside_. Sonic turned around, seeing the commander and a small group of infantry men sprinting toward him. Commander Tower swore at the sight of the Egg Carrier in the distance.

"We're too late," he growled, then turned to his men. "Call all aerial defenses and tell them to follow that airship! We won't miss him this time."

Something inside Sonic's head suddenly clicked.

"Late? Miss? Oh no! I should have been at Amy's by now!" Sonic held his head in frustration.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, would you help us-" Commander Tower said, but the words died on his lips when he noticed that Sonic was gone.

…

The light flooded in, almost blinding her with its sudden intensity in the dark room. Clanking metal met the floor, and she instinctively backed up as the robot stepped forward. She tried her best to make a convincing glare.

"Have you changed your mind yet, Amy?" asked Metal Sonic, with his hands behind his back courteously.

She shook her head defiantly. "No. And I'm not going to. Period."

Metal Sonic made a sighing noise, walking up to her. He stared into her eyes, giving her a sudden chill as she stared back.

"You don't have a choice."

He grabbed her, clamping his hand around her wrist, preventing her escape.

"Let me go! Let me go!" she screamed, hitting the robot with her free fist.

He did not heed her plea. Metal Sonic turned around, taking her with him. A piece of black cloth was pulled over her eyes, preventing her from seeing. No matter what she tried, hitting, kicking, screaming, dragging her feet, Metal Sonic's inescapable grip remained firm.

"I told you to let me go!" she cried, trying to free one of her arms from his iron grip.

She shrieked as she felt her legs lifted up from underneath her. Her head hit something hard, which she assumed was his arm. She tried kicking her feet, but the machine's hold only constricted. Another cloth was used to wrap around her mouth, preventing further protest.

She was laid down on a cold, flat surface. She guessed that it was steel or iron or something similar to that. Metal clamps closed around her arms, preventing her from moving. If she wasn't being gagged by the cloth she would have gasped at her realization of where she was.

It was an operation table.

"Very well, Amy," Metal Sonic hummed. "You said you didn't want to share my power…"

Metal Sonic removed the blindfold. Amy squinted, looking up at the only thing in view. The white ceiling cast down its dim light on her, revealing that she was trembling. It wasn't the cold that made her shiver, but the icy look of the robot which was barely in view.

"So… do you want to be powerful? Do you, Amy?" Metal Sonic pressured, his eyes searing brightly at the edge of her vision.

Why was he acting like this? What could be his motive?

Amy blinked away tears, shaking her head vigorously. No. It was true, she didn't want power. She wanted to be home, waiting for Sonic to pick her up and take her to the park. They could eat ice cream, go on rides, just have some fun. She could see him knocking at her door that moment, holding a bouquet of flowers... She didn't want this to happen. Not here. Not now.

What was he going to do to her?

"Hmm…" Metal Sonic said, watching as she shook her head again. "That is… unfortunate."

He turned away, picking up something on the table next to her.

"But," the machine continued, "I will give you this opportunity. Personal preference or not."

Metal Sonic held up a helmet of some kind. It was fashioned of some kind of steel, and shone brightly under the dim light. Connected to the back of it was a long wire, snaking several feet down. On it were many small, needle-like objects. Amy squirmed, knowing what he intended to do with it.

"You don't like it?" Metal Sonic asked, placing it on her head even as she struggled. "That is, shall we say… _unfortunate_."

It tightened around her cranium until it was firmly attached to her head. The metal tail from the back went underneath her, lining itself up with her spine. The needles delved into her skin until they attached to her spinal column. Amy cried in pain, squirming as the needles dug their way into her body. It hurt so much. She wanted to be gone, to wake up and discover that it was all a bad dream. But the overwhelming pain did not subside.

"It should be excruciatingly painful," Metal Sonic said, watching her writhe and twist. "And yet, I cannot be blamed. You gave me no other choice."

Metal Sonic shook his head in remorse.

"I am so sorry, Amy. But this will have to pass."

The only thing scarier and more dreadful than the pain infecting her body was the condition of her mind. Everything slowly went blank. She forgot where she was, what was happening, where she came from, why she was there. Everything. No pain. No thoughts. Nothing.

Then the pain came back. She was a scared hedgehog laying on an operation table while her blue hero was going to her house to take her to the park.

There they were, in her mind, sitting on a bench while sharing ice cream. Sonic was talking to her.

"Don't worry, Amy," Sonic said. "It will be over soon."

"Okay," she dizzily replied. She was laying on the bench now. "Sonic, I don't... feel good."

Sonic was holding her hand. "It is alright. The pain won't last long."

She wanted to close her eyes, but she also wanted to look at Sonic. He was looking down at her, and his eyes brightly shone... red?

"I want to go home," Amy suddenly murmured, but Sonic didn't offer a comforting smile.

He didn't frown, either. Wait... Where was his mouth? Is this even Sonic?

Sonic slowly grew darker, and for a moment Amy wondered if a cloud had moved over the sun. Oddly, Sonic's muzzle began to darken. The dim sky became a ceiling light as Sonic's quills turned a darker blue.

"Sonic?" Amy called, but Sonic began to glare at her. "I didn't mean it, Sonic. Why's the... blue... ocean?"

"Just close your eyes," the red-eyed Sonic soothed. His voice was deep and shallow. "It will be over soon."

Amy nervously did so, partly because she was tired but also because Sonic was scaring her. The cool darkness was relieving, but Sonic's eyes still burned in her vision. They watched her protectively, but with a kind of intensity that made her uncomfortable. It was awful, but at the same time, pleasant.

What was happening?

…

Sonic put three coins into the slot of a payphone, dialing the number. He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Tails to pick up. A frantic voice answered the phone.

"Hello? Who is this?" the fox at the other end asked.

"Take a guess," Sonic said with a small grin.

"Sonic! Sonic, I have some bad news!"

"Yeah, I know. Egghead got out of jail. Even worse, Amy locked the front door of her house because I was late."

"Sonic, what are you going to do?" Tails asked in a concerned tone.

"I'll just call her back tomorrow."

"That's not what I meant! The Egg Carrier just flew over my workshop!"

"What? Are you serious?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah! But don't worry, I have Team Chaotix chasing it down. Try to get over here as soon as possible, okay? Sonic? Sonic?"

The phone hung upside down, unattended. Sonic made a beeline through traffic, prompting many drivers to honk and shout as he passed by. The hedgehog swerved past a bicyclist as he made for the city park. He weaved his way through the trees, turning from the left to the right in hardly a second to avoid colliding with any objects. Taking a deep breath of fresh air, he smelled a hotdog stand not far away. Resisting the temptation of turning around, he ran faster.

And crashed into a black hedgehog.

"Oomph!" Sonic grunted as he got back up, wiping dirt off his quills from his fall to the ground. "Sorry about that. Are you-"

Sonic stopped talking once he realized who he ran into. Shadow muttered some colorful language before glaring at Sonic.

"Do you know what you just did?" Shadow demanded, jabbing his finger at Sonic.

"Look, Shad. Let's get one thing straight: I didn't mean to-" Shadow interrupted him.

"I have a busy schedule, blue hedgehog. It just so happens that our little collision just cut off my communications with G.U.N!" Shadow pointed to a small device on his wrist. "What do you have to say about that?"

Sonic frowned. "Okay, I'm sorry. Happy now?"

Shadow offered no reply. He turned his attention back to his communicator, apparently trying to fix it.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Sonic asked.

"I just used chaos control to warp back from my last job, which was only hours ago," Shadow answered, not looking up from the device on his wrist.

"Speaking of jobs…" Sonic smiled. "Eggman got out of prison. Want to help me haul him back?"

Shadow finally looked up. "I'd do it myself, but you would probably tag along anyway."

Shadow broke into a run, dashing out of the park. Sonic caught up with him, running alongside the black hedgehog.

"And who said that _I _was the one tagging along?" Sonic said, daring to poke him in the arm.

"Don't touch me," Shadow growled, shooting him a glare.

**In this space I will write facts concerning the differences between the previous version, and this one.**

**Firstly, Eggman was never in prison. He was actually being held captive by the Chaotix for reasons unmentioned. Second, there were no "fight scenes" until the fourth chapter, but that was changed in order to provide a break to the plot. The Jetblade mecha was not introduced until this chapter because it wasn't in the original story. Shadow didn't appear until chapter eight or nine. This chapter has changed the most, and has resulted in a complete branch-off of the old version.**

**That's all for now.**


	3. Broken One

_Chapter 3_

_**Broken One**_

A blurry blue monster loomed above, reaching down with its intensely cold, talon-like fingers. Burning red seared from its eyes, and sharp thorns protruded from its back. Roars that could break glass shrieked out of its steel body, mending with all the other earsplitting noises it made. Gears turned, sparks flew, fire rumbled. But nothing could compare to the powerful beat of its hateful heart.

She knew.

She knew it was trying to get her.

Running was useless. The sand she stood on clung to her feet, scraping at her legs like claws trying to drag her under the earth.

Looking at it was unavoidable. The girl watched its every movement, motivated by either fear or curiosity. Maybe both.

Screaming was impossible. Her throat was dry and her mouth simply refused to open, silencing her even in the final seconds of her life.

She knew.

She knew it was going to kill her.

**...**

Two speeding objects zoomed through traffic, pinballing off cars as they made their way to the city limits. Cruising at a steady 55-miles an hour, they darted past every hotrod and motorcyclist that stood in their way. The more energetic one, cobalt blue in color, bounced off a small truck just for amusement as the second slowed down once it reached a small parking lot. The other followed, stopping next to an expensive sportscar.

Shadow stood erect, arms crossed firm as he looked at the device on his wrist, which was beeping irritatingly.

"Now what?" Sonic asked, leisurely propping himself up against the vehicle.

Shadow kept his back turned as he spoke, "Hold on. I just received a transmission."

A crackled voice came through the communicator.

"Agent Shadow, This is G.U.N. headquarters. One of Eggman's mechas is on the loose."

"Signature?" asked the hedgehog.

"BTA-971."

Shadow frowned. He recognized that signal code.

"Alternative name?" the black hedgehog asked.

"Robo Knuckles."

Shadow paused. That was exactly what he didn't want to hear.

"Link its position to my navigation unit," he instructed. "I'll mobilize as soon as possible."

Shadow deactivating the device's transmission capability, muttering a few choice words.

"What's up?" Sonic asked, wondering why Shadow was looking more cross than usual.

"I have to go," he replied.

Shadow was about to run back into traffic, but Sonic stopped him, getting in his way as he looked into the other hedgehog's stubborn eyes.

"What's your problem, man? Just tell me what's going on."

"Robo Knuckles has been sighted east of here. I have to go deal with him."

Sonic seemed unusually thoughtful for a moment.

"What if we trade?" Sonic said with a smirk.

"What! Switch jobs with you? Are you crazy?" Shadow questioned.

"Why not? You have bigger fish to fry, right?"

Shadow was skeptical. Why would Sonic want to trade? Wasn't Eggman the bigger target?

"What's it to you?" Shadow demanded.

"Nothing much," Sonic said with a plain smile as he shrugged his shoulders.

Shadow was annoyed. Sonic was keeping something from him, and he wanted to know what. Robo Knuckles was just another mecha who happened to appear once Eggman got out of prison. So why would he want to trade? Shadow wanted to know. On the other hand, he didn't have time to just sit here and find out.

"Deal," Shadow said, although he refused to shake Sonic's hand when he offered it.

Sonic kept smiling anyway. "Great. Tails told me that Eggman just went by his workshop. Head there and ask him for details. You do know where it is, right?"

Shadow was clueless. "I have a rough idea," he answered.

"So... where's Robo Knuckles?" the blue hedgehog asked.

Shadow shoved his communicator into Sonic' hand after taking it off. He pointed to the screen, where a red button flashed.

"Is that simple enough for you?" asked Shadow, who was smirking slightly.

Sonic was already gone, ricocheting off cars and trucks as he plowed his way back into the city. In seconds, the speeding blue hedgehog swerved around a corner, and disappeared.

The red streaked agent frowned. "One of these days," Shadow growled, "I'm going to kill him."

**...**

Breathe.

Don't think; just breathe.

It's simple. Nothing to it.

Learn to breathe.

Now breathe out. Good.

Almost done. Just one more thing.

Open your eyes.

The first thing she saw was the ceiling. She was laying on something… soft. Her back felt funny, and her breathing seemed loud and obnoxious. The air was extremely clean and fresh, like… like… something she couldn't remember. She tilted her head a little, feeling a soft blanket covering up to her neck. Realizing that she was laying on a cot, the hedgehog tried to sit up, only to find that her back started to hurt at the attempt. The throbbing pain ebbed away as she sank back down, forcing her to heave a pained sigh.

She felt strange. Empty. Alone.

"Amy… are you awake?"

She turned a little to the left, careful not to hurt her back. Her eyes met with those of a metallic blue hedgehog. It… _he_ was sitting in a chair next to her, watching her with his circular red irises. It was as if he was waiting for something, and she was surprised when he spoke.

"Your natural physical reactions had to be recalibrated for proper functioning," the replica explained. She was having trouble understanding those words. "You will be immobile for the next few days, given that you have not made a full recovery."

Recovering? From what?

"You seem… disoriented," he observed before standing up. "Allow me to help."

She watched as the metal hedgehog revealed a yellow jewel so large that it covered his entire palm. The robot's sharp metal fingers gripped the sides, making it glow.

"Close your eyes," he instructed.

After a short pause, she did so, and felt his hand press against her forehead, which immediately grew warm from his touch. The hedgehog suddenly realized that she was cold. Slowly, she felt the warm heat wash over her, cleansing the chilly fear that made her tremble inside. When her eyelids lifted, she felt everything become clear. It was like a thick veil had just been pulled away. She could even breathe easier.

"That should help," assured the mecha. Yellow energy dissipated from his hand as he sat back down. "Amy. That is your name."

_Amy._ There was something entirely familiar about it. She liked it.

"Try to say it."

Amy opened her mouth, only to forget how to make proper sounds. Jumbled words that sounded embarrassingly like baby talk spilled from her mouth.

The machine looked at her with his emotionless face. She looked away.

"I had expected that."

She kept her mouth closed at the risk of sounding like a child, or worse, an _infant_.

"Perhaps we should start with pronouncing colors," suggested Metal.

_Metal._ That's funny. Did he tell her his name? Maybe she just forgot…

He lightly tugged one of her locks over her eyes so she could see it.

"This color is called: pink Try to say it. _Pink._"

Amy bit her lower lip nervously.

"P-pnk," she managed to spit out.

"Close," encouraged the machine. "Try again."

"...P...p-pink."

**...**

It was nighttime. The worst of all times to be in the Mystic Ruins. Massive insects crawled out of their daytime hiding places while snakes and spiders began their hunt for prey. Statues supposedly of the Fourth Great Civilization towered above the forest canopy like ancient tombstones of the long forgotten race. Wide-leaved trees sheltered the small sprouts on the ground from the hot sun during the day, later drooping heavy with dew during the night, allowing the saplings to soak up the clear moonlight.

The darker parts of the Mystic Ruins, farther inland than the ruins themselves, were swampy areas where fish, reptiles and other slimy creatures from the chordate phyla were present. Water plants that had adapted to the wet, and intensely cold air, covered the moist soil where the dark bogs receded.

_Of all the places to show up_... Sonic thought. _Why here?_

The blue hero tapped his foot while looking at the communicator Shadow lent to him. Sonic had tracked Robo Knuckles' signal all the way to the Mystic Ruins only to have it completely disappear. The device couldn't have broken; the radar was still displayed. How could he just lose him like that?

_How did he get away?_ the hedgehog wondered, arms crossed firm. He was starting to get extremely bored.

If anything was true, it was that the mecha was more clever than the echidna he was fashioned after. Robo Knuckles used to be the guardian of Metropolis before it fell, given that Eggman had the ironic sense to make him the guardian of _something_. Even before that, Sonic had run into him a couple times at the Launch Base Zone, after the destruction of the first Death Egg, which hadn't lasted very long in space.

From what he remembered, the mecha had been some kind of combat-addict, which explained why he decided to go the way of Metal Sonic and backstab his creator. Must have been more of a challenge. Not only that, but this robot was... different. There was some strange drive for power in him, something Sonic hadn't seen in any mecha other than his own imitation.

And now his signal had just blipped off the radar. That was both annoying and boring. _Really_ boring.

The communicator flashed suddenly, and a static hiss emitted from the communication device. Sonic did some guesswork and pressed one of the many buttons.

"Sonic, this is Shadow. I'm transmitting through my spare com. Can you hear me?"

_Well... it's better than nothing. _

"I'm here, Shads," Sonic replied. "What's up?"

"I managed to track the Egg Carrier to one of Eggman's mountain bases. Where are you?"

"South of Mystic Ruins, I guess."

"Have you found Robo Knuckles?"

"There's a good question. Say, what do you know about Robo Knuckles?"

There was a pause at the other end.

"…There's only so much I can tell you. You probably shouldn't know, but…"

"Yeah?"

"...When G.U.N. took down Metropolis, the commander ordered a detailed search for U.C.M.s."

"What's a U.C.M.?"

"It stands for Unique Class Mechas. Like Omega."

"You mean Eggman robos that go traitor."

"Precisely. Anyway, once our field units discovered Robo Knuckles, Headquarters decided they wanted him on our side."

"Let me guess; you tried to recruit him and he beat the crud out of you."

Sonic could imagine Shadow frowning at the other end.

"For your information, blue hedgehog, I wasn't there."

"Right. So, what else can you tell me?"

"Well, he's given himself some upgrades."

"Wait… what? You mean he upgraded himself?"

"Do I need to say it again?"

_Time to change the subject._

"Never mind. So, how's your part of the mission coming along?"

"Fine. I'm just about to enter… Hold on. Wait… what is that?"

There were a few gunshots and smashing sounds, followed by an explosion. The communicator started to fizz out.

Sonic hastily shouted through the transmission, "Hey, Shadow! What's going on? Shadow?"

The signal cut off.

Sonic checked the back of the device, looking for something that he could use to patch through to his companion. Instead, he saw a spider the size of a cell phone on his wrist. With a slightly undignifying cry, the startled hedgehog flung the spider onto a rock. The arachnid skittered away, perfectly unharmed.

Sonic somewhat aggressively kicked at the rock, which didn't budge at the action. It felt like it was... dug in. Curiously, the hedgehog brushed away at the object's surface, seeing an aged layer of what used to be red paint. As he felt the 'rock's' rusted surface, Sonic noticed a small, unnaturally formed crevice running across the side.

_Bingo_, thought the hedgehog.

After a few failed attempts to open it with his hands, Sonic kicked at the top of the disguised hemisphere, knocking off what used to be a small lid. Looking down into the hole, he saw a handle. Sonic turned it to the right, and pulled up, given that it refused to move any other way.

Then, he heard a strange mechanized noise.

_Click, click, click, click... Clang! __Click, click, click, click... Clang! _

Immediately afterwards, a small rumbling shook the ground, scattering snakes and more spiders from the foliage. The dirt from beneath a nearby tree was sucked into the earth, creating a small gap between its roots.

_So this must be one of Eggman's old bases_, Sonic figured. _Really old. That tree most have grown right over the entrance. _

Sonic looked down into the unlit passageway beneath the tree, feeling cold air even more freezing than that of the swamp meet his skin. There was something faintly... terrifying about this base.

_Cool,_ Sonic thought, noticing the rungs of a ladder that led straight down into darkness.

It made him wish he was with someone he could scare as they climbed the down the creepy ladder together. It would be fun to go down into the dark base and creep out his companion, whoever it was.

Definitely not Shadow. He was boring.

Tails would be the most likely person, but he spent more time in his workshop while Sonic went out adventuring alone. Knuckles had started to guard the Master Emerald closer than ever before. Come to think of it... everyone else seemed to be moving onto bigger things while Sonic still fought Eggman. It was like...

His friends were growing up without him.

Shaking his head, Sonic shifted his attention back to the task at hand. He placed his hand on the first rung, feeling its cold surface even with his gloves on. Then the second. One step after the other, Sonic plunged into darkness.

As he went farther down, the air became steadily colder. With every extra step, the cold leached its way past his fur until he was no longer protected from the frigid temperatures. Despite attempts to stop, he was shaking from the unheated atmosphere. He needed to run to gain body heat, and _soon_. Noticing a faint red glow far below him, Sonic climbed down faster, nearly falling off the ladder at the first attempt.

A red light blazed over a doorway next to the ladder, illuminating the bottom of the vertical passageway Sonic just climbed down. It was a long cylinder, probably fifty feet high. But it was extremely short in width, only about three feet.

_This can't be the only entrance, _Sonic reasoned, _it's too small._

But then, as standing still soon reminded him, he had more important things to worry about.

Looking for somewhere to run, the freezing hedgehog went past the doorway, walking into a long hall. Like the passageway, it wasn't very wide, albeit the ceiling was rather high. Other passages intersected with this one at odd angles, although they didn't seem particularly random. It was like a system of intersecting lines, converging and diverging at key points that the observing hedgehog couldn't understand.

No matter. He just needed to run.

Sonic sped past every door in sight, not bothering to even look at the red lights attached to the ceiling. The question of how they were even working in the first place did occur to him, but the need to pump his legs was greater than his curiosity. It sure felt good to run again. After some five minutes of dashing through the crimson-lit corridors, Sonic rolled to a halt, feeling much warmer.

Stopping to ponder, the hedgehog knew it was time for a plan. Most all of Eggman's bases had some kind of design scheme to them, usually applying the rules of symmetry. Sonic had been to numerous bases before, but this one felt… different. Secondly, if it was so old, then why were the lights still working? Had something turned them on? Robo Knuckles, maybe?

About to do some more running, Sonic prepared to sprint, stopping when he noticed a puddle of oil at his feet. Following the short trail of liquid, the blue hedgehog sighted a small robot. Bent inward on itself was a humanoid robot with a set of treads for a lower body. It must have been a leftover mecha from when the base was abandoned. It was clear that it had just been destroyed; its single optical eye still blinked on and off repeatedly.

After Sonic jogged around for a bit, he noticed several more of the small mechas laying on the floor, some of them crushed into cubes.

_Robo Knuckles must be feeling creative_, Sonic thought, following the trail of beaten down robots.

Then he heard it. A noise. More specifically, a banging sound.

Sonic slowed his run into a steady jog, then a walk, and finally, a slow step. The hedgehog crept towards the sounds, leading himself to a room with the door torn off of its rusted frame. Standing in the doorway, the hedgehog saw a red mecha literally _shred_ one of the smaller robots where it stood.

With a satisfied monotone growl, the mecha retracted his four-inch blades back in the fist-guards on his hands. Metal dreadlocks trailed down his head, giving the vague effect of similarity to the original. From the side, his emerald green eyes flashed with a strangely dangerous look to them. A small curve on the flawless steel on his muzzle appeared, and continued to widen until perfectly white, artificial teeth were revealed. A superfluous, but effective upgrade.

Arching back his arm, the mecha smashed his first into the head of the small humanoid until it was flattened like a tire. He raised his fist again, preparing to maim the mecha with all his might.

"I could have done it faster," Sonic commented, leaning against the doorway.

Robo Knuckles turned his head. The robot's "mouth" closed for a moment, vanishing into the steel before opening again, and curving into a grin.

"Hedgehog," he snarled as unpleasantly as a monotone robot could. "I hadn't expected to see you here."

"You echidnas," Sonic quipped. "So easy to surprise."

Robo Knuckles threw the robot aside, smashing it into the wall. "You're just always sneaking up on people."

"Touché," Sonic said, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yes you have," countered the echidna replica.

Sonic didn't know what to say to that.

The mecha kept that eerie fake smile on his face. "I'm sorry, but I don't have time for this."

He turned his back to the hedgehog and continued walking through the seemingly endless empty room. Sonic was starting to get cold from standing still again.

_Maybe some talking will help,_ he thought with a smile.

"So… what's a rusted pile of scrap like yourself doing here, anyway?" questioned the hedgehog.

The mecha's automated legs stop. There was a short pause before he slowly turned around. Their eyes locked, and the blank faced robot just stood there. Until his curved smile appeared again.

"Nothing you'll find out, with such a short life expectancy," he threatened, bringing his arm back for a punch.

Just as the sharp, diamond-tipped claws emerged from his arms, a surprisingly loud alarm flared, surprising both the mecha and hedgehog.

Several humanoid robots appeared from somewhere in the darkness, each rolling forward on a pair of treads. Their clawed hands snapped open and closed, creating a mechanical _clank_ every time they did so. Bright yellow optical lenses focusing on their targets, pinpointing weak spots.

Sonic was the first to react.

Running forward to gain speed, he kicked his feet off of the ground, propelling himself through the air before curling into a ball. Spinning toward the first mecha, Sonic sliced straight through the connecting joint between its upper and lower body, knocking it completely over on the return trip.

From behind him, Robo Knuckles jammed his spiked fists into one of the robot's abdominal areas, using his foot to separate it from the protruding blades, effectively knocking it into a wall. Two similar mechas charged at him from behind, only to be smashed into each other by Sonic from one side, and Robo Knuckles from the other.

Realizing their tag team abilities, the two beat down the remaining three enemies, stopping when the robots were successfully decommissioned.

"That was fun," Sonic remarked.

The metal echidna paid him no attention, peeling open the steel frame around a broken robot's head. He stared at the internal system, scanning the wires and electrical tracks. He eyes seemed to blink, or waver for just an instant. He had found something.

Suddenly, he let out a frustrated roar as he dug his claws into the wires before ripping out all manner of circuitry in the robot.

_What's this guy's problem? _Sonic thought, looking for a way to talk to him without risk of getting his face slashed.

"Why… did you do that?"

Robo Knuckles let out a long, robotic sigh. "These aren't old robots."

"What?" Sonic gaped. "What do you mean?"

Seriously, how could they _not _be old? The base itself was ancient, most likely from even before Sonic started fighting Eggman.

"You don't get it," Robo Knuckles sighed, standing up straight. "This base isn't as old as it seems. Eggman began construction before G.U.N. had even started their campaign to destroy Metropolis."

"Okay, so it's not old after all. Sonic shrugged with disinterest. "Big deal."

The mecha wasn't swayed in the least. "You still don't understand. There are bigger things happening here than even G.U.N. knows about. They can't begin to _theorize_ what's taking place below these walls."

Sonic was confused.

"So what _is_ going on? Huh? Tell me that."

Robo Knuckles gave him a long stare, his muzzle quivering as his mouth emerged to show a dark grin.

"Maybe some other time," he said, turning around and running into the darkness.

"Hey, come back here!" Sonic shouted, dashing after the surprisingly fast mecha.

The sound of his metal feet clamping down onto the steel made him easy to follow, even though no light illuminated the path before the hedgehog. Then… the loud sound of footsteps stopped...

But Sonic kept running. The paneled floor beneath him started to become uneven and cracked, small portions of it breaking away as he made his way through the lightless room.

_Just how big is this place anyway? _Sonic wondered, starting to run faster.

Just as the hedgehog thought that, his foot failed to meet with solid ground, and he fell forward. Nothingness surrounded him as he flipped and spun in the air, grasping for something, _anything_ that could save him. No such luck.

As the hero hurtled downward, he felt something that he hadn't felt in a long time.

_Fear_.

* * *

_**Great. A cliffhanger.**_

**Okay, now for the facts. Robo Knuckles was in the original story, and he actually did appear in this chapter. However, I gave him no background whatsoever, and he was later killed in the same chapter he appeared in. Sonic was kidnapped by Metal Sonic, and I think Tails and Knuckles had been 'brainwashed' too. **

**Oh… and this used to be OC fiction.**

**…um… that's all the facts I have for now.**

_**Bye.**_


	4. Sector Sanctum

_Chapter Four_

_**Sector Sanctum **_

Eggman's newest base was like none other, built on mountains that towered miles above the highest Westopolis skyscraper. The tall metal walls around it were just as impressive, making it look like a prison surrounded by a sea of clouds. Heavy rain and fog decreased visibility, requiring certain mechas to be upgraded with heat and motion sensors. Most of those same mechas were constructed with long, scythe-like arms, allowing them to scale the rocky cliffs without risk of falling off.

There were also some new security modifications, primarily relating to that of the cameo-equipped tank robots, which created deep tracks in the soft dirt as they moved in designated areas. Any local wildlife had been scared away partly because of the spotlights and partly because numerous birds of prey had been shot down by mechas with machine-guns attached to their arms.

Small pod-like sensors stalked everything that moved; even a large truck carrying mecha parts formed by the same evil mastermind who built the base. The pods swarmed the truck like insects to honey, scanning its flat surface for life forms. Once they finished, they floated away, seeming to have noticed a squirrel in the premises.

The vehicle continued moving, the sensors having been unable to detect the government agent hidden beneath it. Shadow watched as Eggman's machinery marched past him, completely unaware of his presence. It wasn't usually his style to quietly sneak in, and he wouldn't be at all if the robots hadn't blown up the pass leading up to the base - while he was still on it.

It was obvious the doctor was taking no chances this time.

The truck passed through the inner courtyard gate, immediately being searched by another hoard of scanners. After that, it was allowed inside the base itself. The vehicle stopped moving, having entered the loading bay. Shadow took the opportunity to crawl out from underneath the truck, and hunched down behind several steel crates.

He quickly observed his surroundings. The bay was large; nearly the size of an underground parking lot. It also seemed to double as a factory, where several half-constructed mechas stood on conveyer belts, being assembled as they moved onward. Once constructed, they were lined up against the wall, waiting to be activated. A few robots marched back and forth, guarding the manufacturing foundation of the madman's army.

Shadow smirked as he found something to blow up.

In the very center of the factory was a generator, which most likely supplied immediate power for the entire system. There was probably a backup, but blowing up something that important would do something, right?

_The doctor won't be happy about this, _the dark hedgehog thought as a satisfied smile stretched across his face.

He held his palms about an inch away from each other, and started channeling chaos energy from his hands. A small green aura appeared, filling up the space in-between the gloves. When he couldn't make it any stronger, he fired it at the electric generator, watching it make contact in a fractured second.

The explosion was large enough to incinerate everything in the mini-factory's range, leaving nothing but melted rubber and scorched mechas, including the inactive ones. The air within the blast radius turned to black smoke as scanner bots and cameras turned their attention to the destroyed factory. By that time, Shadow was already gone.

The black hedgehog sped down a hallway, instantly crushing every mecha and security drone that got in his way.

He didn't have time to worry about being stealthy. Not anymore.

_The doctor had better show himself soon. This mission is starting to bore me, _the agent thought.

After some searching, he entered a room that was quite different compared to the others. The entire ceiling was a single light panel, not only that, but it was extremely high up. Maybe fifteen feet. The walls were the same, each illuminating the room with equal intensity. Shadow looked down, noticing that the floor was stranger still. Millions of tiny squares divided up the space equally, the lines of each shape blending into the next, like some kind of grid.

The door slammed shut from behind him. Shadow looked behind himself, only to see nothing out of the ordinary.

"Confused?" asked a voice from behind him.

Once more the crimson-streaked animal turned his head. Eggman, the human whose very form would baffle any anthropology specialist, sat in his floating pod. His mouth formed into a wide smile, one that obviously meant he was feeling self-satisfied.

Shadow was instinctively suspicious. Eggman always used his machine as an escape vehicle, or make-shift weapon. So then why wasn't it attached to any machinery?

"Not likely," the hedgehog replied.

The doctor smiled at this.

"You seem intent on staying. Perhaps you wouldn't mind a little... entertainment," Eggman said, his smile broadening.

He typed something on the keyboard in his floating pod, opening the bottom of the machine. A long chain extended out, the end of it attached to a claw-like arm. It looked somewhat like a claw machine.

Shadow crossed his arms, unimpressed.

As if to indicate he wasn't done yet, Eggman keyed in another command, and the room started to change. The entire room seemed to waver, as if the walls were stretching and distorting themselves. The light blared intensely as Shadow began to get a headache. He shut his eyes, unable to take the earsplitting pain.

Then he opened his eyes again.

_Where am I...? _was all he could manage to think.

Concrete buildings towered overhead, so high up that they seemed to pierce the black sky above. The street that Shadow stood on was cracked and broken. Rubble and overturned cars were scattered everywhere in such a random pattern that the hedgehog standing the middle of all this was almost _forced _to recognize it.

_This is... Central City... when Black Doom was... But... how?_

His thoughts must have been written on his face; Eggman was certainly pleased.

"You..." Shadow said, having trouble finding the right words. "You're tampering with chaos energy, aren't you?"

"I knew you wouldn't be confused for _too_ long," the evil scientist replied. "But I don't have time to explain it to the likes of you."

Shadow growled. "If you're not going to tell me, then just _shut up_!"

"If you insist..." Eggman said, his pod charging forward, claw outstretched.

**...**

A blurry haze of purple light flickered on, growing in intensity before fading to black. The illumination lit up once more, and faded away, faster this time. On and off, the foggy light repeated this process over and over, faster and faster until it pulsated, resembling a steady beat; similar to the beat of a _heart_.

Like the steady throb of the heart of a cobalt hedgehog nearby it.

Sonic slowly came to, lifting up his head to see machines and equipment surrounding him in a well-structured fashion. The air was fresh and sterile, which was surprising at first. The only response he gave to the flashing screens and bright lights was a confused blink. Struggling to his feet, the mammal glanced around in silence, recalling the events that led him there.

_So... I ran after Robo Knuckles and fell..._The headache-induced hedgehog glanced around._ ...into one of Eggman's labs?_

Vibrant white light shone from the ceiling, forcing the mammal under its gaze to hold his gloved hand over his eyes, giving his eyes time to adjust to the slightly intense lighting. The floor and walls were polished and smooth, giving obvious proof that the lower sections of the base were well-maintained, unlike the floor above. But how the base remained in use after its creator left it was a mystery.

Sonic's ears perked up as he heard a familiar voice start talking.

_"...aos abilities allow a 'Controller' to distort time and space. This is also known-"_

"Eggman!" the blue mammal shouted, whipping around to the source of the sound.

It was then that he realized it was just one of the monitors - which had somehow turned on -was playing a recording of Eggman giving some kind of scientific lecture. Several computer models were shown next to graphs and data displays that boggled Sonic's mind just from the sight of them.

_"...the Space-Time Disruption Theory. When chaos power is utilized by an organic Controller, maximum potential instantly increases, theoretically permitting an infinite developmental process. When this occurs-"_

Sonic yawned, and probably would have fallen asleep right there on the floor if he hadn't heard a strange sound coming from behind him. Turning around, the hedgehog immediately smiled at the sight of a group of mechanical wasps buzzing forward in a swarm formation.

Each had a pair of synthetic wings powerful enough to levitate their small bodies in the air, much like the robot bees Eggman used to make. Crimson eyes flashed intensely as long, segmented limbs extended outward in anticipation of attacking their prey. At the bottom of the thorax was an extensive stinger, which glowed red-hot from internal heating.

_Nice... _Sonic thought, leisurely stretching as a mecha hurtled itself toward him. _Kinda' like the Buzzer mech. _

The hedgehog abruptly leapt upward, rolling into a ball as he came back down, reducing the first mecha into shrapnel.

The recoding of Eggman continued to rant as Sonic went for another wasp robot. _"...an aura of ..." _

Three of the metal insects activated small booster rockets behind their wings, firing themselves like bullets at their target, only to miss and lodge themselves into the wall.

_"...surrounding a Controller, which energy is immediately drawn from when utilizing chaos abilities. All artificial chaos field attempts have ..." _

Sonic jumped onto a wasp, crushing its head with his foot before kicking off of it to rocket himself into the three wasps on the wall. Each wasp was spin-dashed with ease; the mechas were like darts stuck to a target board.

_"...failed to remain sustained unless a similar aura of bio-electric origins is present – or even exists. According to theory..."_

Sonic clapped dust off his hands as he examined his handiwork. Wrecked robot parts were everywhere, randomly scattered throughout the once-clean laboratory. The hedgehog sighed as his adrenaline level slowly dropped, and Eggman's voice rang through the lab once more.

The screen from which the recording was playing shifted from the doctor himself to a data display on his right, which presented two charts. The first was labeled in green, and had a DNA strand next to it. The second was red, and a duplicate of the other strand was placed adjacent.

Sonic's brow furrowed as he tried to pay attention to the egg-shaped human's rambling.

_"...ields of artificial formation are only practical if genetically copied from organisms which already possess them. For this process to take place, a DNA sample must be recovered and placed into an inorganic frame, or mechanical unit. Once this process is complete, the unit will be able to adapt and change individually, even if several of the same model are created. This information supports the Theory of Chaos Manipulation, which states that an embodied..."_

Sonic walked away, unable to stand listening to more of the egomaniacal doctor's speech.

But then, he noticed a familiar purple gemstone. The chaos emerald was suspended in the air, hovering in place over a pedestal of some kind. It wasn't even protected by glass. Sonic was about to reach out to grab it, when he noticed wires leading from the metal pedestal to a machine to the side. Walking over to it, the animal realized that the emerald had been powering this machine _alone_.

What was with that?

Sonic looked inside a thick window in the side of the machine, wondering what it was for. Inside, he saw what looked like a miniature version of Westopolis next to a similarly sized Green Hill Zone. Strangely, nothing was happening. But then, quite suddenly, a purple mass expanded outward from the middle of the city, and a second in the center of Green Hill until everything was consumed in what looked like some kind of slow-moving explosion. Once the purple faded, the entire replica had changed.

Both models seemed to have _warped_ together into a twisted version of the two. Buildings congealed into the checkered rock of Green Hill. Gray and white clouds perversely mixed, forming chalky brown vapor that looked like smog. Plants grew from apartment windows and the city's sewer system had surfaced, leaving a pale brown river that joined to one of once pure, crystal-blue water.

_What... the... heck? _Sonic was disturbed, and prompted into deep thought. _What does this mean? _

He glanced back at the jewel to which the machine was connected to.

_If the emerald is powering this thing... then that means that the purple... thing has something to do with chaos energy. But... I still don't get it. _

As Sonic stood there, everything reversed itself, and the process started again.

_It just keeps going. Maybe... maybe this is some kind of test! That way you can see the results over and over again. _

The hedgehog decided to take that chaos emerald before anything else happened. Surprisingly, when he reached for it, he wasn't electrocuted or anything like that. Eggman _had _to be being careless. There was no way he would just let him take something as important as that.

_Something doesn't feel right,_ Sonic pondered. _Oh well. I'll just come back later with Tails. He'll know what's going on._

As the hedgehog left to search for a way out, he didn't see a pair of green eyes watching him. Robo Knuckles came out from his hiding place, looking disapprovingly at the inferior wasp mechas he had sent after the hedgehog. Although they failed to defeat their enemy, they served their intended purpose: keeping him distracted. And Robo Knuckles had served his purpose just the same.

Keeping the weapon safe.

**...**

Metal Sonic stared at the computer screen, waiting as the seconds counted down to arrival. Every once in a while the screen would disappear, replaced by mere static before returning again, then repeating the pattern in such a routine way that it seemed almost like a procedure. And every time the mechas eyes stayed trained on the timer.

Five minutes. Only three-hundred more seconds before he could focus on something _important_. Not just these... thoughts. Something deep inside was bothering him.

He knew what it was. There was no denying it.

It was the emotions he had developed from his chaos field.

Creating a machine, a lifeless object, and programming it was only a scratch on the surface of what he was capable of. A machine that could think was nothing next to a machine that could _feel_. True, inorganic materials could be used to create mechas, but they could only be used as tools. Nothing more. But could something that is not living, nor even dead, become equal to an organism? More than something that could only comply to a task-maker's will?

It was difficult to comprehend, even for Metal Sonic.

He could remember, years ago, when his creator had copied _that hedgehog's _DNA, and used it to form his ultimate creation. The perfected copy. Metal didn't just look like Sonic, he _was _him. They were the same. Yet, so different.

But chaos powers made them even more similar still. By copying enough data, he became capable of fusing an organic chaos field to himself. Now, just like any other being with chaos distortion abilities, he had an aura to draw energy from. It also allowed him to fuse himself with his creator's airbase and become the Metal Overlord.

But for Metal, it had come at a price. The price he had to pay was the retaining of emotion. Even the procession of such sentiment made him feel weaker, slower. But he knew that if he could learn to master emotion, it would be to his benefit.

Amy had proved very useful to him so far. As he taught her how to talk, Metal studied her emotions. His chao, Neon, was teaching her how to spell multisyllabic words. She was learning surprisingly fast. So fast, in fact, that he was worried she might remember who he was. That would make things complicated.

The screen flashed back on for barely an instant, but he still managed to read the countdown.

_Two-hundred and forty seconds. _

Metropolis. That was where he was going. Everything he could possibly need was there: reprogrammable robots, oil refineries, a maze of unused buildings, weapons, and... _machinery_. Metal needed that most of all, and Metropolis had all kinds of machines. He could do anything with such a multitude of steel and circuits.

And he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

_One-hundred and eighty seconds. _

It was strange. On one hand, he _hated_ the very thought of having emotions. To be more like his nemesis. But then again, he did like to relish some of the feelings the emotion brought. Like the thought of killing the hedgehog he so closely resembled. _Too_ _closely_.

_One-hundred and twenty seconds._

Metal did find it amusing to just imagine the pain and suffering his enemies would endure. His creator too, he wanted dead. They would all die.

_Sixty seconds._

He was so close. So close to starting something that would ruin all of their lives.

_Thirty seconds. _

He wanted revenge.

_Ten seconds._

And he was going to have it.

* * *

**Yeah, I know. This is the shortest chapter yet. **

**Not only was this chapter extremely short, but I have no information to give on chapter four. All of the facts for this chapter contain spoilers, so I can't give you any of those. Not that they really apply anymore, considering how much the story has changed. **

**All I can say is that the old story was half-over at this point. Although... the old version doesn't seem to have much relevance anymore. Maybe I'll give you some more facts once we get to a later chapter. I have nothing else to say here. **


	5. Imitation Soul

**Looks like we have another short chapter due to... budget cuts. Sorry. **

**On the plus side, the chapter title is a hint. See if you can figure it out.**

**

* * *

**

_Chapter Five_

**_Imitation Soul_**

The steel chain clinked loudly as it careened forward, the claw at its end snapping open in attempt to snatch its prey. Shadow barely managed to dodge in time, jumping away at the last instant to make a graceful landing on the pavement. The hedgehog turned around, grimacing at the sight of the man who was attempting to kill him.

Just then, the chain flung itself towards him while the human's floating pod was still facing the _other way_. The claw clamped onto his leg, immediately yanking him toward the machine. It swung him forward, then back, and forward again, releasing him at the last moment, effectively throwing him down the street.

But instead, he smacked into thin air, having met what was really the wall.

_This whole room is just some damn illusion,_ Shadow cursed, quickly righting himself as Eggman neared closer. The taste of blood settled onto his tongue..

"Having fun, yet?" the scientist taunted.

The hedgehog shifted his aching jaw, discovering that a tooth was missing.

No matter. It would grow back.

"On the contrary, no," he grudgingly returned.

Eggman responded by flinging the chain at him again, which latched onto the hedgehog's arm. Shadow tried to shake off the claw off, but it was too tight. He could feel the circulation of blood start to slow as the chain reeled him in toward the machine. Quickly, the Ultimate Life Form relaxed the muscles in his free arm, summoning a surge of chaos energy which passed through him like a lightning rod.

A chaos spear struck the pod, only to unceremoniously bounce off and hit the ground. The doctor smiled.

"Did I forget to mention that my new Eggmobile has a distinct resistance to chaos energy?" the human quipped.

Shadow growled as he was pulled in closer. The scientist's intention was most likely to crush him against the pod's exterior. There was no way out at this rate; the pod's nullification prevented him from teleporting away. Then, the claw moved closer to his hand, nudging against the ring on his wrist.

Shadow suddenly had an idea.

"Tell me, _rodent_," the egg-shaped human began, "How does it feel to lose? I myself find it quite... unsettling."

"Actually... I wouldn't know," came the reply.

Shadow jerked his arm back, forcing the claw to move up his wrist...

...and snap the chaos inhibitor in half.

Red energy _involuntarily _flowed through his arm, pulsating violently as the claw was disintegrated by mere contact. The living weapon was suddenly _very_, very angry. His eyes burned with rage as they flared aggressively, lighting up like ruby gemstones. Eggman, in a panic, pressed a button on the ship's controls, concealing the top of his machine with a glass shield.

Removing the other inhibitor, Shadow's quills stood on end as the holographic blacktop beneath him ruptured and cracked. His entire body glowed in a blood red aura of pure energy as he floated an inch above the floor. He threw his hands up, allowing all of the chaos energy in his body to pass through him like plasma travelling through water. Random bolts of energy struck the walls and floor, the sudden power overload revealing the room itself for split seconds at a time.

Then, Shadow released all of the power at once, firing a crimson wave of chaos. But the blast went above Eggman's pod, leaving the man completely unharmed. The dark hedgehog slowly dimmed back into normal color, the energy having been used. The scientist began to laugh.

"You missed! Shadow, how could you be so-"

The room started to rumble and shake violently as cracks appeared in the ceiling above.

Shadow the Hedgehog stared forward, the slightest hint of a smile on his lips as he whispered, "I don't miss."

Eggman was displeased. Very displeased.

But there was no time to react. The room slowly compressed inward on itself, like a cardboard box under too much pressure. _Far_ too much pressure. A crevice appeared in the ceiling, and in seconds, split open, exposing the holo-chamber to the heart of the mountain. Rocks tumbled downward, having been unsettled in the seismic activity created by Shadow's chaos blast.

Just as he was about to finish his target, a familiar voice purged his mind.

_"Shadow... we have much to accomplish. Join me, and we shall destroy the humans... together."_

The hedgehog roared in pain, his head throbbing with bitter memories. "No! You're dead! I... it's over. Leave me alone!"

But as soon as the illusion faded, rocks fell from above. The last thing he saw was Eggman's pod getting away... before everything went black.

**...**

Tails the Fox stared at his half-repaired bi-plane, the _Tornado_. He sighed loudly as he grabbed a screwdriver from his desk and tried to attach the starter to the newly assembled engine. Just yesterday, someone had barged in, tore the plane apart, and left. Not only had the initial shock nearly broken his heart, but his wallet also suffered from the damage, given that new parts had to be purchased to replace the stolen ones.

Strangely, the morning that he discovered his wrecked plane, the Egg Carrier flew by his house. Not only that, but there had been a strange piece of metal on the floor with Eggman's logo on it. Tails was no detective, but that in itself seemed fairly suspicious. Besides, who else would go to such great lengths just to take a few parts?

But... there was one other thing Tails noticed about the stolen items. Only particular parts had been taken. A flight support module, rotary coupling, optical sensors, even the AI system he had installed for the auto-pilot. Those items weren't easy to come by, and Tails had even made a few of them himself. Given the pattern of the parts stolen, the person responsible had to be _using_ them for something. But what? What could anyone built from a few choice plane parts?

Just then, the doorbell rang, startling the fox and causing him to accidentally gouge himself with the screwdriver.

Resisting the urge to curse, the animal gripped the finger he had cut, walking to the door at the same time. He opened it with his free hand, seeing the only brotherly person he had ever known in his life.

"Hey, bro. What's up?" Sonic asked, tossing a chaos emerald in the air before catching it again.

"Sonic, that's a chaos emerald!" Tails was shocked. "Where did you get it?"

The hedgehog grinned as he walked through the door and threw himself on the couch.

"It's a long story..."

**...**

The hanger doors slid open, revealing the harsh midday sunlight. Thick brown smoke curled up into a yellow sky, most of which was blotted out by large, industrial buildings. Puddles of oil and other liquids flooded the street; creating the smell of petroleum which wafted through the desolate city. Rusted machinery and broken down mechas were scattered about, having worn down after months of neglect.

In the center of all this was a large statue of the human to which the city belonged. The figure was a man who traditionally wore a red waistcoat lined with bright copper fasteners. In his large hand was a jewel, replicated to the likeness of a chaos emerald. He was an astounding architect, engineer, scientist, and...

A creator.

He was only one man. Yet... South Island fell to the might of his mechanical army. The sole inhabitant of Angel Island - its only protector - had _willingly _given all of the resources he could to support such a man. Even the natural astronomical body orbiting the planet had been half-destroyed at his command. He had taken _control_. The world had once trembled at the sound of his voice.

He was more than a genius. More than an intelligence quotient of three-hundred and fourteen.

A machinist. A scientist. A creator.

His Father.

Metal Sonic was part of that legacy. And there was nothing he could do about it.

"M-metal... where are we... g-g-going?" Amy stuttered, holding a deactivated Neon tightly in her arms as her shoes clicked loudly against the steel ramp. Her lack of memory had temporarily left her with a speech impediment.

"Do not worry," the hedgehog duplicate replied. "I am taking us somewhere... safe."

Their feet touched the concrete ground as they stared out into blurry orange haze. They were in Metropolis now. There was no turning back.

As they moved forward, the Annihilator vanished in the distance, consumed by a pale yellow cloud of pollution. The giant cruiser had been home to Metal for nearly two years as he waited to unfaithfully decay. When he had no purpose. It was a symbol of his past, and how he was leaving it behind to continue on to the future, whatever it may be. He was leaving his past behind.

"W-why are you looking b-back?" Amy asked him.

Metal shook his head at the realization of what he was doing.

"It's... nothing. Just keep walking."

After much walking through the desolate streets, they approached a set of stairs that led down into the darkness beneath the city. Down into the underground tunnels. The passageways were lined with engines and power generators, supplying the entire city with different energy sources. Outdated power producers still extended out from the walls; rusty pistons and forgotten waterlines dug pointlessly through the system, much to the distaste of the former inhabitants.

But the subterranean passageways weren't only aged, they were dangerous. Dysfunctional robots that hadn't yet rusted into deactivation prowled the underground aimlessly, the only command in their databanks being: 'Kill the Hedgehog.'

Metal Sonic would never take Amy down there.

"We're going this way," he informed, pointing to a large factory in the distance.

Massive smokestacks extruded from the structure's roof, pouring out black smoke even though nothing had been burned inside of it for months. There was much more pollution coming from that building than any other.

"W-why t-that one?" the pink female inquired.

"It's a factory," he replied as he took the first few steps toward it.

The factories were mostly underground, connected to the surface by smokestacks and industrial complexes. There were hundreds – maybe even thousands of robots that were inactive. And he could reprogram them all. Every last one of them.

Then he heard something.

Metal Sonic turned around, looking for the source of the noise. Slowly, it grew louder, causing Amy's ears to twitch just barely. It almost sounded like...

_An engine._

As if reacting by instinct, Metal Sonic grabbed Amy's arm.

"M-metal, what-" she sputtered.

"You have to hide! Now!" he urged, pointing to the closest alleyway.

But it was too late. _He_ had seen them.

The engines of a massive red airbase shrieked to life as it soared through the sky, blocking out the sun as its large shadow spread across an entire district. Jet-supported mechas deployed out from its center, dropping down onto the concrete with no trace of damage. Each was at least six feet tall, painted red and black in color, with glowing orange blades emerging from the arms. Hovering above the robots was a small satellite, with sensor dishes and antennas extruding from all sides. But the most notable thing about it was the screen in the middle.

And the man on which it displayed.

"Hello there, Metal Sonic. Enjoying the view?" asked Eggman.

Metal Sonic spoke with faint, monotone sarcasm, "Most certainly."

The image faded briefly, replaced with a storm of static before appearing again. The Creator continued talking. "I don't mean to be prying, but might I ask what you're doing in _my _city."

It was not a question.

The robot kept stared intently at the screen. "No."

His former master grimaced, and was about to speak when he noticed Amy.

"And who's this?" he mockingly inquired as the screen inched its way closer to the hedgehog.

She trembled in fear, gripping the metal chao in her arms.

"Why, if it isn't Amy Rose. What might you be doing with Metal Sonic? Shouldn't you be chasing a certain blue hed-"

_Smash!_

A fracture appeared in the screen, causing the picture to dim and fade as the satellite squirmed in the air. Metal Sonic backed away, fist still clenched, somewhat surprised at what he had just done. The robots raised their blades, ready to attack at the command of their creator.

His Creator.

Silence ensued. Although the screen was too dim to make anything out, the doctor's voice still crackled through.

"That was a mistake. I intended to negotiate, but now you're just making me angry."

The robots stomped closer, surrounding both hedgehog and duplicate.

"You don't want me angry."

Metal Sonic chose his words carefully, wondering why the doctor hadn't already given the order to destroy him. "What is it that you want?"

It was quiet for a full second. But in that moment, Metal could tell the human was undeniably satisfied.

"As your intelligence processer has probably already surmised, I would have incinerated you by now if you weren't useful to me. I need you to do me a favor."

The mecha hedgehog saw the robots surrounding him, each with their blades held out menacingly. Amy whimpered helplessly.

"...continue."

"I'll be sure not to give you _all _of the details; we don't want to spoil anything now do we? You see, I intend to restore my city to its former glory, but I'm not quite ready. The method by which the city will be restored requires a considerable amount of chaos energy. Perhaps you know what needs to be done..."

Metal Sonic's thoughts went to the chaos emerald in his possession.

"...how many do you need?" he asked.

The machine bobbed up and down, the screen dimly lighting up, despite the crack which hampered its broadcasting capability.

"_One_."

A robot swiftly grabbed Amy, jerking the mammal against its armor plating as a radiant blade was held to her neck. Her mechanical chao fell from her gentle hands, lifelessly collapsing onto the ground without a sound. Metal Sonic stayed where he was.

Eggman continued talking, "I know that you have a chaos emerald. With energy readings you're giving off, it's undeniable. Although I must admit, I'm curious as to why Miss Rose is present. Perhaps this has to do with a chaos induced mutation... like _emotion_. Which would explain why..."

The floating machine loomed over the frightened pink hedgehog.

"...you need Miss Rose."

Metal Sonic could tell that this was not a guess.

The genius smiled at his creation's silence. "But let's get back to business, shall we? Your chaos emerald isn't the only one in Metropolis. I have detected another one secured in the underground sectors, but I don't want to risk any of my _good _robots by having them retrieve it."

"So, you want me to get it for you in exchange for...Amy." Metal nearly trailed off.

"Precisely."

Then Metal looked at his creator, the one who was responsible for _everything_. "If she is not returned to me... _I will kill you_."

The doctor grinned. "Of course."

Without warning, the mecha convoy lifted off, ascending back into the Egg Carrier.

Amy was gone.

"Hold on to that chaos emerald for me," the man taunted with a smile. "You might need it."

The pod floated away, sensors waving as the levitating machine departed into the Egg Carrier.

The street grew silent. Nothing made a sound. The electric hum of streetlamps muted as the wind died down; halting the creek of windows with rusty hinges. Even the oil dripping off the gutter to the ground went quiet. And in that moment of silence, the mere instant when the entire city held its polluted breath...

Metal heard something _throb_.

**...**

Light flooded in from above as the rocks were moved away, casting a pale glow on the feminine figure in his vision. For barely an instant, he had thought of one thing.

_Maria._

But instead, he saw a familiar bat standing above him. She reached her arm down to help him up.

"Hey there, Shadow. What happened to you?" she asked.

_It's only Rouge._

"_You. Are. Late,_" the hedgehog breathed, refusing to accept her hand and crawled out on his own.

Rouge huffed, crossing her arms as if she had been offended. "Well someone got out on the wrong side of bed this morning."

He grunted in response, briefly examining the room. Water pipes poured sterile liquid onto the floor, the clean water mingling with fresh dirt to create a thick, brown mud. It reeked terribly.

"What happened?" Rouge finally asked.

The hedgehog grunted, "He got away."

"What did you find out? Did you see anything important? You didn't _lose_, did you?"

Shadow shook his head in response. He had a splitting headache. "How long was I out?"

The bat shrugged. "I don't know. Could be anywhere from three to five hours."

"You should have come sooner," the hedgehog grumbled.

"_You _should be grateful I got here so fast. The squad commander kept telling me to stay back! There are still robots in the hallways, _and_ I nearly _ruined _my gloves digging you out," Rouge defended, holding up her palms to show the dark brown smudges on the surface of the white gloves.

Shadow grunted, indicating that he could care less.

"By the way, the commander wanted me to tell you that there's been some activity in Metropolis," Rouge stated, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

The agent paused. "I'm listening," he finally said.

"An Egg Carrier model was seen flying over the Factory District," the bat informed. "However, I don't know if Eggman was there personally. He often sends out decoys just to keep us busy."

"So what makes this one any different?" Shadow questioned.

Rouge smiled and held out a photo. "Our satellites picked up a U.C.M."

The hedgehog accepted the photo, making sure that his hand didn't touch hers as she gave it to him. The image was blurry, and hard to make out, but the color was undeniable. Eggman never created mechas that were _that _color. Unless it was...

"Metal Sonic," Shadow mouthed, looking at the dark blue machine in the photograph.

"We have orders to make contact with him at eight-hundred hours tomorrow," she told him.

Shadow frowned.

_The commander can't be serious. That thing almost killed me once. Two years ago... but Omega disappeared after that. Maybe there's a connection._

"Tomorrow," Shadow repeated as he handed back the photograph, indicating that he would be there.

He walked toward the door, but stopped before exiting the room.

"What is it, Shadow?" Rouge asked.

"...Don't be late."

Then he left, with a memory and a name stuck in his mind.


	6. Path So Twisted

_Chapter Six_

_**Path So Twisted**_

Twelve sets of mechanical legs moved together in unison, stomping on the concrete beneath them in such an organized fashion that it seemed to be military procedure. Tiny beads of rain trickled down onto their steel heads as clear droplets washed over fluorescent optical sensors. A cold haze quickly settled over the small regiment, nearly petrifying the freezing hostages crowded between their ranks, leaving them shaking due to both fear and bitter cold. Most of them were human, while the minority of them were sentient animals, or as most were accustomed to calling them, "furries." The mechas, however, trained their weapons on them indiscriminately; no hostage would be allowed to escape.

The machines ushered their captives to the sidewalk, having no intention of giving them the opportunity to use the overturned car in the street as cover-fire. Another convey of mechas marched by, patrolling the streets in search of more survivors. Above them an alarm wailed loudly, although it was difficult to hear above the pounding of the rain against the asphalt. Broken glass and chunks of singed building materials were everywhere; the last evidence of G.U.N's attempts to stop the mecha invasion.

A small girl in the crowd started to whimper as they moved toward an evacuated office building near the square. Not by a small degree, it was the least damaged in the vicinity, and additionally, the tallest. One by one, the hostages were herded through the doors and into the dark lobby.

Even inside, it was crowded. Small groups of humans and animals were hunched together on the floor, with mecha guards towering over them, watching with an extreme intensely. The new prisoners were split into smaller groups, and forced to wait. Each Mobian still shivered, the inside of the building being no warmer than the cold streets they had been forced to walk across. Silence stretched on for what seemed like hours; the only sounds made were the occasional cough or sneeze, and even that alerted the tireless suspicion of the mechanical guards. It wasn't until several minutes later that something did occur.

Stepping out onto the balcony above them was the dark silhouette of a human. What light there was only revealed the half-moon smile on his face. Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the figure as his voice echoed down to them:

"Welcome, citizens of Central City. I do hope that you are enjoying your stay, because you are going to be here for a _very_ long time."

The man's smile grew wider. A shivered spread through the crowd as a large mecha stomped toward them.

**...**

_"Hi! You've reached Amy Rose. Please leave a message after the beep... Beep!"_ sang Amy's voice. The audio recording rang into the blue hedgehog's ear.

Sonic held back a sigh, anxiously scraping his fingers on the couch on which he had slept last night. He swallowed hard, trying to ensure himself that the situation couldn't possibly be as awkward as it seemed.

He didn't believe it.

"Hey, Amy. It's Sonic."

No answer.

"Look, I'm... um, sorry that I was late yesterday."

She still didn't pick up.

"Please don't be mad at me. There was this crazy robot, and Eggman got out of prison! I mean, I still want to take you to Twinkle Park, okay? So... Amy, can you please pick up?"

...

"...okay, just call me later then. Bye."

_That was a disaster. _

Sonic was puzzled. What could have made her so upset?

Amy had been offended by him before. Purple bruises beneath his fur, caused by being struck by a particularly large hammer proved that. But she had always bounced back. She could be upset one moment, then happy fan-girl the next. Could his late arrival really have been the breaking point? It seemed strange, uncharacteristic even, for Amy to be so distressed merely because he was twenty minutes late. Although he knew that he had arrived even later than that at other occasions, some part of him was concerned for her feelings, in a weird way.

Despite all of the thinking he was doing, Sonic couldn't help feel that he was forgetting something. Something important.

Sonic sighed. _Maybe some TV will help me think. I wonder if there's some car chase going on or something…_

The cyan hedgehog turned on the television, expecting to see a morning news segment.

He saw something quite different.

The screen showed a aerial view of the Central City Plaza. Or, at least, what used to be the plaza. Rain poured down mercilessly from dark thunderclouds, as if a warning from some divine being that something was extremely wrong. The buildings were dark silhouettes with sharp, jagged features, making them seem unfamiliar and strange, even though Sonic must have seen them before in plain daylight. Even from the height at which the view was broadcasted, one could seen mechas plodding through the rubble, silver armor gleaming hazily in the sparse light. Occasionally, the pale moon would be exposed, casting nightmarish shadows of an airborne armada, as fierce as shadowy creatures stalking prey. There were no people to be seen.

The icon at the bottom of the screen which usually displayed "Channel 6 News", was gone. In its place blared the red insignia of Eggman's smiling face. The madman must have hacked the Central City News Station.

A message blared from the television. Eggman sounded more ruthless than ever.

_"This is Doctor Eggman," _began the recording. The sound was slightly scratchy, but still perfectly understandable._ "Eight hours ago, my mechas invaded Central City, and secured a large sector to the South. In agreement with the Commander of Guardians of the United Nations, I have permitted the area to be evacuated of the majority of the population in exchange for a temporary cease-fire."_

For a moment, the recording skipped, and the blue hedgehog found his heart do the same. He turned up the volume.

_"-have secured a total of ninety-seven hostages, whom I will kill if the military takes premature action. However, I am willing to release all hostages and withdraw my forces if Sonic the Hedgehog agrees to an unconditional surrender. If my demands are not met within twelve hours, my mechas will kill the hostages regardless, and reduce this city to a smoldering black crater. You have twelve hours." _

Sonic noticed a timer at the bottom of the screen, which had already counted down over three whole hours. The message replayed once more, giving Sonic a sick feeling at the pit of his stomach.

Normally, the blue hero would try to lighten up the situation with a little humor, but the jokes were not quite so funny when lives were in danger. Eggman usually didn't use hostages. They had always proved bothersome and impractical during most situations, as far as Sonic could remember. It also seemed like the doctor was starting to change his general strategy. Eggman never invaded an entire city without reason. For him to attack the capital city, essentially corning himself in an area easy accessible to the G.U.N. military units, was downright suicide. Sonic knew the madman well enough to say that he wouldn't attempt such a dangerous venture unless...

Unless it would pay off.

Not for the first time, Sonic wondered how Eggman intended to get even with him after being locked in prison for two long months. With all other arguments aside, one thing was unmistakably certain:

They weren't playing games anymore.

**...**

Shadow was leaning against the compartment wall, not bothering to try grabbing the hand strap above him. He couldn't reach it, anyway. He preferred standing to lounging in the padded seats like Rouge did. The bat was seated across from him, toying with the tracking unit while putting on a bored expression. The muted thrum of the helicopter's steel blades could barely be heard from inside of the cabin.

Looking out the window, he could see the giant forms of oil derricks and factories in the murky haze. Metropolis had always been polluted, but when G.U.N. had cleaned Eggman out of the city, things really fell apart. Distantly, he could remember the sound of the main oilrig exploding, and the crackled orders from the control unit to find cover. The scorching flames spread over everything. Metropolis had practically burned, if only for a few moments.

Although the skies were no longer seared with red, the chaos was not difficult to recollect. The smell of petroleum was still very strong, and brought back more memories of the terrible battles during the liberation. The siege had lasted four months, without stopping. Even Shadow had to admit it to himself, the fights were gruesome, and didn't want to have to do it again.

But here he was again, in Metropolis.

This time, however, he would only have to deal with the memory of it all.

"Hey, Shadow." Rouge was standing by the door and giving him a curious look. "The pilot found a place to let us down. Try to keep your head out of the clouds after we make our descent, okay?"

"Whatever," Shadow replied in an autonomic manner.

The bat rolled her eyes in his general direction as Shadow approached the door. A quick glance out the window revealed the ideal landing location. The helicopter was sweeping over a low building which had the top floor mostly blown off. What used to be the wall now formed a concrete parapet, preventing visibility of the inside from other buildings.

But the helicopter kept moving, seeming to have found a different location. Shadow looked out the cockpit window and realized that the pilot was probably going to set them down out in the open.

Shadow opened the loading doors.

"What are you doing?" asked Rouge, who was giving him another one of her looks.

"We shouldn't land over there." Shadow briefly explained. "It's too open to the surrounding buildings. If there are sentries around, we'll be dead."

"You're paranoid."

"And you aren't?"

Having no desire to continue the conversation, Shadow dived out the doors to the building below. Spreading out his arms like a skydiver to slow his descent, Shadow watched his distance to the ground as the wind whip past his quills in violent bursts. Once the building was close enough, he flipped himself forward while simultaneously activating his hover shoes.

The small rockets at the bottom of the footwear flared up, and Shadow stood up straight, bracing his arms against his sides in an attempt to maintain balance. Just before striking the surface of the roof, the hedgehog curled into a ball. Upon impact, he quickly shred across the building, tearing up both concrete and the layer of plaster beneath it. He pulled back to fight off the momentum of the stunt, and halted next to the wall.

_I'd like to see Sonic try to do that,_ Shadow thought, and permitted himself a small smile before banishing from his range of emotions again.

After spending a quick moment to catch his breath, Shadow turned around at the sound of wings fighting back a gust of wind.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rouge demanded as she landed next to him. She looked agitated, and eyed him with slight disapproval, although her slightly arched eyebrows hinted that she was mildly impressed. "Do have any idea how dangerous that was?"

Shadow wasn't in the mood to argue, but decided to have a go at it.

"I want to get this search over with. Especially since we didn't find anything in the cruiser that Metal Sonic used to get here," the hedgehog pointed out.

_Other than the operating room and all that blood... _he quickly reminded himself.

"Besides, the commander wants this done quickly," Shadow continued, "and I'm not interested in wasting time myself."

Rouge crossed her arms. "Oh... fine. But warn me next time, got it?"

Shadow finally gave a reluctant nod.

"Fabulous. Anyway, can we somehow operate the city's sensor network to expand the tracker's range?"

"No good. G.U.N. took down the mainframe during the siege."

Rouge sighed. "Well in that case, I guess we're going on foot."

The two continued on, saying nothing as they cautiously wandered Metropolis' streets in search of a signal. Although the tracker was professionally made, Metropolis proved to be too big for it to be effective. The general idea was to head to the center of the city in the hopes of finding a signal, but so far only broken down robots and trash filled the streets.

Shadow could remember the glory days of the Metropolis, when it had been the fully functional capital of the Eggman Empire. In fact, he could remember when it had only been _The Metropolis Project_. In his service to the doctor, the madman had talked for hours about his inventions, plans, and sometimes, his dream. The doctor had a very sick and twisted vision for the perfect world, of that Shadow was certain. Death and destruction on a global scale brought upon by mechanical armies that would stop at nothing to carry out the commands of their creator.

But if Eggman actually did have a plan for world domination, it had been well hidden from the Ultimate Lifeform. Shadow sometimes doubted if the doctor even had a plan.

Metropolis provided a glimpse of Eggman's cruel ideas of oppression for the rest of the world. The civilians who lived in the city had been forced in populating it because their homes had been burned down by his mecha taskforces. They weren't even called civilians; the official term had been "civil servants". Even that couldn't accurately portray how they had been treated.

Labor was something that the doctor didn't like to use robots for when people were much more expendable. Factories needed workers, and at the time Eggman had been short of worker robots. The giant statue in the center of the city had been one of many civic projects taken upon by the populace under threat of further privation.

But Eggman was just as much an economist as he was a tyrant. The deviants of the black market were the doctor's best buyers. Weapons, oil, machinery, and even robot parts were sold at exorbitant rates in exchange for anything of value, usually money or service. Some of the buyers would purchase items just to gain an advantage that the others might not have. This proved useful because several of them couldn't tell a particle transfusion device from an oversized trashcan.

Only a select few knew that the city had another discrete, more expensive export. There had been vague rumors of civilians being taken from their industrial homes during the dead of night, and never being seen again. Sometimes entire groups would simply vanish from the factory records, and weren't allowed to be spoken of at risk of the mechas becoming suspicious of treason. Cooperative citizens were seldom taken, but if they were, a greater price was offered as some form of consolation.

Shadow had met many of Metropolis' citizens when G.U.N. had liberated the city. They were haggard and always tense. Deep rings of purple formed under their eyes from lack of sleep, their shoulders constantly sagged, and their arms hung limply at their sides. Fur had thinned, and their skin had become pale, the most reasonable cause being malnutrition. A group of them had marveled at the C-rations they had been given after the liberation; their mouths had watered at the sight of pre-heated beans. Shadow didn't want to know what they had been fed during their citizenship.

"Hey," said Rouge, waking Shadow from his thoughts. "I'm picking up some chaos energy around here."

The hedgehog wrenched his mind back into reality. But just as soon as he heard the news, it was back to business. "How strong is it?"

"Kind of weak, actually," Rouge said, "but it's definitely nearby."

Shadow thought for a moment.

"Then it's probably in the underground," he said, and motioned to a nearby set of stairs which descended below the street level. "The ground usually causes strong interference."

"Alright then," Rouge confirmed. "Lead the way, handsome."

Not wanting to dignify her comment with a response, Shadow said nothing and made for the stairs while Rouge followed behind him. As they went farther down, the air grew thick with moisture, and the smell of petroleum became almost unbearable. In order to provide some means of illumination, Shadow held out his Chaos Emerald in the darkness. The green glow reflected on pools of spilled oil and partially rusted piping.

"This place is disgusting," Rouge said, waving her hand in an attempt to waft the smell away from her nose. "I can see why the doctor ordered his machines to hide down here during the siege."

"Who says he ordered them?" Shadow replied.

Rouge gave him a curious look, but Shadow didn't bother to explain himself.

"Come on," he prompted while walking forward. "Metal Sonic should be down here somewhere."

Shadow thought for a moment about his remark. Just what was Metal Sonic doing in Metropolis anyway?

Something about it bothered him, but he kept going forward. He was sure he'd find out soon enough anyway.

**...**

Sonic gritted his teeth in an attempt to prevent them from chattering, his right hand gripping the front of the bi-plane wing in preparation for another spray of oncoming mist. Chilling vapor met his face, drenching already dampened quills until they darkened from absorbing so much moisture. The wind whipped against him, like a violent hand intent on wrenching the hedgehog from the plane and hurtling him onto the ground below. A tempest roared above, the raging storm occasionally rocking the plane back and forth in an unstable manner.

Black clouds spiraled and twisted in the sky unnaturally, contorting into impossibly complex shapes and patterns. Helixes and spirals; perfect spheres and cubes; cones and cylinders... or was he imagining it all? Could the wind and rain have sedated him into such a dream-like stupor that his ability to discern reality from such apparitions was so depleted?

_I'm thinking too much, _Sonic told himself as the aircraft plummeted through another layer of cloud cover.

The distant roar of thunder could be heard as the plane drew closer to a heavy black cloud in the distance. Sonic checked over his shoulder to see how his sidekick was doing. Tails had never liked thunderstorms, and Sonic knew that his pal's fear of lightning had never truly abated. The young fox gave a nervous smile, although the hedgehog could tell there was some fear in his eyes as they neared the storm clouds, and in turn, Central City.

"So," Tails shouted over the mechanical thrum of his plane's engine, "do we have a plan?"

"Nah. I'm kinda' winging it right now," Sonic replied.

Under normal circumstances, Tails might have laughed, but the thunderstorm was taxing to his nerves. "Sonic, we don't have time to mess around. Eggman's probably expecting-"

Gunfire, followed by a loud metal _crunch_,was heard as Sonic saw the wing opposite of himself snap. Thankfully, it was still attached, hanging feebly to the main wing in a crumpled kind of way. As the plane swayed dangerously, three airborne objects split through the clouds, commencing another fusillade. From the quick glances Sonic could manage, he could see that they were dark silver, and their reflective surfaces established that they were metal. They looked like jets, although he couldn't see a cockpit for the pilot. Red streams of light burned from behind them as they maneuvered through the air, pursuing the small blue aircraft. More bullets cut through the air as Sonic held onto the wing, casting a concerning look to his companion.

Tails was arm wrestling with the throttle while simultaneously pressing buttons in an effort to lose their pursuers. A missile was fired from one of the metallic aircraft, and the plane swerved to the side, slow enough so that Sonic could stay on, but quick enough so that the missile was successfully evaded.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted over the sound of more gunfire. "I can't shake them! I need you to get off the plane!"

Sonic found himself yelling over the booming roar of thunder. "Are you crazy, Tails? I can't leave you from up here! I'll-"

His speech was interrupted as the ruined wing broke free of the craft and was flung backwards into the abyss of vapor. Tails cast his brother a concerned look. The plane was losing balance quickly.

"This isn't my first crash-landing!" the fox proclaimed. He pointed a shaking finger at a skyscraper protruding through the cloudscape. "Get into that building! I'll meet you on the ground!"

"But Tails, I-"

A missile shrieked past them, hurtling into the darkness, and resolving the argument.

Reluctantly, Sonic grabbed the front edge of the biplane wing, and braced himself for a jump. The building came closer, and the hedgehog quickly planned his landing. If everything went right, he would break through the window, slow himself down, and stop before he crashed through the opposite side.

Easier said than done.

Another round of bullets fired, leaving no time for second-thoughts. The structure rushed forward, and when he could almost see the inside of the tower...

Sonic leaped.

He was flung forward into the cold darkness, vapor pelting his face. Bracing himself for impact, Sonic shut his eyes and held his knees close to his body. Squinting his eyes, he was just barely able to view the dark windows of the structure. This was it! He was going to make it!

Unexpectedly, the wind changed direction, causing him to veer right. His heart thumped loudly against his chin as he resisted the urge to panic. Without warning, he broke –no, more like crashed- through the window, splintering glass through his fur and onto the marble floor. In an uncontrollable manner, Sonic slid over the waxed marble surface and rammed into the wall, sending a painful cry up his spine and out of his mouth.

His vision grew blurry as he watched the entire room shift unsteadily back in forth like a pendulum. Instinctively, he grasped at the wall for support, but realized that the building wasn't actually moving, only his vision. After a few blinks, the subtle shaking ceased, and he pulled himself up off of the ground. Thankfully, nothing had been broken, and the glass had not penetrated his spines.

"I should write a book," Sonic joked while popping his back. " 'One Hundred and One Ways to Injure Yourself.' "

Carefully, he began to stretch, his eyes examining the room while he did so. The lights were off, presumably because the power wasn't working. Eggman probably demolished the grid directly before his attack. On account of the power outage, the lightning was the only source of illumination. The harsh blue light would suddenly flash, casting long, dark shadows across the polished marble. Sonic didn't really find it eerie; he'd been in worse situations. Plus, it just added to the suspense.

The sound of an electronic _ding _was heard as the elevator chimed. It was probably running on off of an emergency generator. The doors opened, revealing a small troop of robots. Each was about half of Sonic's height, with four small wheels that made tiny motor sounds as they moved. They were low to the ground, and the back ends were raised slightly for aerodynamics. A miniature turret was mounted on each of them.

"Cool! These guys look like little RC cars!" Sonic said with a grin.

The mechas responded by firing at him.

Sliding on the glass, Sonic spun to the side, then swerved into the nearest robot, knocking it over. He bounced off of it, then onto another before landing in between two others. The turrets fired, and Sonic sprung upward to avoid the bullets. The shots succeeded in hitting the opposite mecha, rendering them both destroyed.

"That is _so_ classic," the hedgehog laughed.

He knocked over the remaining two and stood up straight, managing a yawn.

"Okay, so I've beaten the toys. Now where's the real action?"

As if in response, the sound of heavy footfalls shook the floor slightly. Something was drawing closer. It sounded like it was coming from... the stairs?

Sonic opened the door opposite of the elevator that led to the dark stairway. A large, heavily armored robot was trudging up the steps, causing the walls to shake as it did so. It was humanoid in shape, and had large fists with spikes for knuckles. Its head was made to look somewhat like Eggman's, with a half-moon grin and small, glowing eyes to match. The center of its abdomen was a shade darker than the rest of its armored boy. It seemed to Sonic as though it was a possible weak point.

_All right. Now we're talking._

"I guess you were too heavy for the elevator, huh big guy?" Sonic taunted.

The mecha stomped onto the landing, just eighteen steps away, and looked up at him. It turned so that it faced him, then threw its arms back, simultaneously opening the covering on its abdomen. A heavy machinegun emerged, which promptly began pelting bullets at Sonic.

Taken by surprise, Sonic almost stumbled, but quickly bounded from the floor, to the wall, to the landing, and back up the stairs again, a trail of ammunition following him as he went. The magazine emptied, leaving empty bullet cartridges scattered on the floor. In order to reload, the weapon retracted back into the machine's body. Just for fun, Sonic dashed directly adjacent to the robot, then dodged as it tried to strike him with its fist now that he was at close-range. Bouncing onto its fist, Sonic lunged at the mecha's head, quickly curling into a ball in mid-air. He rebounded off, then landed at the top of the stairs once more. When he looked down at it to admire his work, there wasn't even a dent.

_That's weird,_ Sonic thought. _And I hit him in the head, too._

The machinegun appeared again, propelling more bullets at him. Once more, Sonic bounced off of the walls to avoid the attack. The mecha withdrew the machinegun, seeming to have given up. Just when Sonic was about to attempt a counter-attack, its abdomen opened up again. This time, a short, black nozzle stuck out. The nozzle projected a plume of flame in his general direction, and Sonic barely leapt away from the fire in time.

A wave of heat washed over him a he managed to lunge onto the rail, then quickly skate downward, sweeping past the mecha. Using the momentum provided from grinding on the rail, Sonic went straight for the wall. In an instant, he put his foot out, struck the vertical surface, and began to run.

Running upside down wasn't unusual for Sonic; matter of fact, it was almost second nature to running on the ground. Besides, it wasn't quite as difficult as gping across water. That required some skill. All he had to do was keep up his momentum and not go on for too long. Compared to rail grinding in space, this was a piece of cake.

Looping around from behind, Sonic shot off the wall and struck the robot in the back like a bullet, sending it tumbling down the stairs. The floor seemed to shake just slightly, and for a moment, Sonic wondered if it might collapse entirely.

He noticed with a twitch of his nose that something was burning. His eyes followed the amber lighting to the top of the stairs where he had first entered to see blazing fire. It wouldn't be wise to carry on this fight any longer.

"Hey!" Sonic shouted down to the robot. "If you do that again, I'll recite the fire code!"

The mecha began stomping up to him with surprising speed. It looked to Sonic almost as if it was angry. With each step, the floor shook, and Sonic even wondered if it might collapse.

"That's funny," Sonic mocked as he leaped into the air. "Eggman really does model you guys after himself. You even throw fits!"

Before the robot could offer any response, Sonic tightened into a ball and spun, shearing the side of its head like a rotating saw blade. Again, he landed a short distance away to observe the damage, but found that he had only managed to shear the paint from the side of its metallic cranium.

_This isn't good. My attacks aren't doing anything because its armor's too thick. There's no way I can hurt him unless-_

Sonic heard the slight groan of wood from above as the fire ate away at the beams above his head.

_...something bigger hits him._

"Hey!" Sonic shouted, promptly sticking out his tongue at the mecha. "Guess I'm too fast for you to hit me head-on, huh?"

The mecha slowly turned towards Sonic, and stomped forward. For an instant, its grin almost seemed to widen.

Suppressing the strange thought, Sonic backed up towards the wall slightly, making room for the robot. It swung one of its fists forward, which Sonic easily evaded, as well as the upcoming punch from its other arm. The mecha swung its massive fists back and forth, stomping around angrily, Sonic dodging every movement. Almost instantly, Sonic ran to the lower flight of stairs, and leaned casually against the rail.

The mecha took one step onto the stairs, sending another slight tremor through the stairway. A loud, wooden groan was heard from above, and the mecha looked up in time to see fiery timbers fall onto its head, burying it. With a satisfied grin, Sonic quickly glanced at its head, seeing that the impact had caused its eyes to dim. Its arm lift once, then fell, and Sonic knew it was over. 

"This is great. Even taking the stairs is fun!" the hedgehog exclaimed.

A sudden feeling of melancholy dimmed his spirits, and he suddenly remembered why.

_ I shouldn't be messing around so much. I need to find Tails. After all, fun can be dangerous too._

Quickly pulling the fire alarm before dashing down the stairs, Sonic could faintly hear the sprinklers turn on as he went down several more steps. Sonic didn't really like stairs. When it came to ramps and loops, climbing them was easy because every step had a particular rhythm, which wouldn't disturb his momentum. But when it came to stairs, descending was awkward and uneven because he had to slow his pace to avoid even one misstep.

But when he ran anywhere else, it almost felt like flying; the movements were quick and breathtaking, but also peacefully slow, as if every moment was important in the grand scheme of things. Just like a musical note in a song, each footstep was an important component in the vast panorama of running.

Sometimes he really hated stairs.

But, he was still fast, and it only took him less than a minute to reach the bottom, even in a tall building like this.

When he reached the lobby, several of the RC mechas were there to greet him. They opened fire with their turrets, and Sonic simply rolled into a ball and zigzagged into each of them. One sputtered sparks, but other than that, all signs of operations ceased. He could only guess that Eggman used them as scouts, not infantry, and that the cannons were merely support for their fragile frames.

Once he was alone, Sonic pulled up his glove a little, revealing a communication device disguised as a wrist band. After Sonic had told his story to Tails the other day, the fox went into his lab to fetch a pair, in case they might need them. He had gotten the idea from the com-unit Shadow had used.

Sonic tapped the device lightly with his finger, then spoke into it.

"Yo, Tails. Have you found a safe place to land?"

A wash of static sang back to him.

"Aw man," Sonic sighed, then lightly scratched his ear in worry. "Why couldn't Eggman have attacked in fair weather? Honestly, he has such poor taste..."

Not knowing any other way to improve the situation, Sonic opened the sliding glass doors, intending to see where in the city he was. What he saw was the unquestionable aftermath of a warzone. Cars were toppled over, glass was scattered all over the street, smoldering pavement congealing into cracked asphalt. The steel corpses of combat mechas, both G.U.N.'s and Eggman's, lay frozen under the pattering rain. A soldier lay against a car, weapon in hand, dead. The heavy, bullet-proof vest he wore had several holes in it, with heavy blood pouring from them, only to be rinsed off by the rain. His chin tucked into his collarbone lifelessly, like a broken puppet; a marionette with its strings cut.

He had seen dead people before. Eggman's battles weren't always without casualties, and there were some people that Sonic hadn't been able to save. A rooftop fall, bullets from a mecha, structural collapses, missile fire, fatal burns. Men, women, kids, and...

His parents.

Sonic didn't stick around to observe the body, but quickly ran in the general direction of the square. If Eggman was planning something, he would probably pull it off where he could be found. After all, he hadn't called Sonic here just to hide from him.

A small convoy of six robots confronted him just a few blocks from the square. They looked similar to the Jetblade mecha, only less sturdy and with thinner armor. Their scythe-like arms, however, were longer by a few inches. He guessed that the armor had been removed due to its weight, allowing the mechas to more even faster.

"So, you're the welcoming party? You don't look very hospitable to me."

The joke wasn't as funny as he thought it would be, and another melancholy feeling stirred inside him.

_Come on, Sonic, pull it together,_ he thought as the first mecha propelled forward, blades slicing through the air.

He slid underneath its legs, knocking it over as he sped into the next mecha. This one seemed prepared, and quickly made a downward slashing motion to protect its footing. But Sonic took the opportunity to bounce from the ground and into its abdominal area, sending it crashing to the ground. He followed up the attack by bearing his sharp quills on top of it while spinning; its midsection was shred. As he jumped off, another mecha sliced up at him, and Sonic could feel the small currents of air breeze past him, the blades tickling his quills.

That was close.

He tried to hit its head, but it boosted to the side, evading the attack. Another came from behind, attempting to stab him with its first blade while the second tucked itself closer to its body, preparing for a counter-attack. Sonic made a dash to the side, quickly circling the robot until he was behind it, then kicking it in the head. The mecha spun around, scythes cutting toward his abdomen. As he stepped backward, his foot slipped on the wet pavement, and he fell. This apparently saved him from an attack from behind, as another mecha whirled its blades toward where he stood.

_Man, this is great! Still, I think the fun's over._

Making a quick recovery, he sprung from the ground, knocking into the first robot, then bounced backward into the second. Two more mechas advanced on him, but Sonic quickly sped a short distance away.

"That was fun, but I have to go now! Laters!" Sonic called, then sped off.

Pedaling his feet against the pavement, he glanced behind himself to see the mechas attempting pursuit, although they weren't fast enough to keep up. There were still five of them; he had only gotten rid of one.

_Hmm... maybe I underestimated these guys. _

He lost them on the way to the square. Still, he had to admit their speed was impressive, even though they couldn't catch up to him.

The square looked as though it had been a strategic point in the battle, seeing as to how much damage it had taken. Smoldering black craters rippled through the street; small chunks of asphalt lay everywhere. Two cars were turned over, a streetlamp had been twisted unnaturally, and the statue of the woman in the fountain was missing her head.

Stopping to further examine his surroundings, Sonic looked up at the sky, feeling the gentle battering of the rain against his eyelids. It appeared as though Eggman was using the tall buildings in the vicinity as an airstrip for his fleet. Sonic could see one the doctor's battleships in the distance. It was a massive aerial fortress with roaring engines and large, fin-like structures that provided minor lift. The general shape was like that of a trout, or some similar aquatic creature. It was painted a classic red and yellow, colors Eggman was fond of.

Sonic could only guess that Eggman's presence in airpower was what had driven G.U.N. away. His robotic ground troops were thinly spread, and they certainly couldn't fend off G.U.N. mechas by themselves. The mechas produced by the Guardians were bulky and heavily armored, and more than a match for Eggman's versatile, but weak creations. An entire fleet of warships seemed the only real threat.

But they seemed to be rather crowded in the skies. Eggman had given the impression that he had taken over the whole city, but it was fairly evident that it wasn't the truth. From what Sonic could guess, Eggman had merely forced his way into the downtown, and set up shop while G.U.N. had him penned in. Even the air fleet kept closer together, probably afraid that the Guardian Units were setting up anti-aircraft cannons near the perimeter. 

As soon as Commander Tower grew bored of Eggman's shenanigans, mortar would probably rain from the sky and scare the doctor off.

_I guess that just leaves me to save the hostages,_ he thought, looking up at the buildings surrounding him. _Now which one of these buildings would Eggman be in?_

The answer struck Sonic immediately. The Kailman Building. It was the tallest structure in the square, reaching almost six-hundred feet. Dark, tinted windows gleamed against the flash of lightning. It stood out against the overcast clouds as a mere silhouette, which looked strikingly impressive. Surely Eggman would hide the hostages in there.

Without warning, Sonic was struck in the back of his head with such force that he fell face-first onto the wet pavement below. He grunted in pain as the bare skin of his muzzle scraped against the rough asphalt. Head pounding, he dragged himself to his knees, looking up to see Robo Knuckles standing about thirty feet away, holding the purple Chaos Emerald.

"Hey!" Sonic spat, feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline. "That's mine!"

The mechanical echidna said nothing, but instead just stood there and stared at Sonic.

"Look, pal!" the hedgehog growled as he stood up, his muscles tensed in preparation for a fight. "If you think you can just sucker punch me and take-"

A shadow moved past Sonic, causing him to angrily glare at the interloper.

"Excellent performance, BTA-971," Eggman chuckled as his pod floated over their heads. It lowered in elevation as the doctor positioned himself next to Robo Knuckles, who promptly held out the emerald for him to take.

The scientist chuckled smugly, holding the emerald in his hand and inspecting it. "Your efforts have proven to be most satisfactory."

"I try," Robo Knuckles replied, casting a glance at Sonic.

"So, you've been playing sidekick all along," the hedgehog observed, crossing his arms in irritation.

The mechanical echidna folded his arms behind his back in contentment and chuckled.

"Of course, hedgehog," Robo Knuckles hummed in monotone satisfaction. "Who else would have saved the doctor from the G.U.N. prison? Perhaps you believed that the combat robots had plotted the prison extraction while completely independent of a superior AI? How unperceptive of you."

Sonic's teeth ground together at the sudden blunt insult. Eggman seemed to be enjoying the tension.

"So glad you could make it, Sonic" the doctor began with a convincing show of interest. "I see you received my invitation. And you brought me a gift as well. How kind."

"Yeah, well the party's over, doc," retorted Sonic. "And I wanted that back... don't have the receipt, you know."

Admiring the gem's reflective facets, Eggman bantered on, "I don't think that will be necessary." The doctor put a hand to the side of his face in mock surprise, and added, "Oh my, it seems as though this present was regifted. If I'm not mistaken, it was one of mine."

He cast Sonic an expectant look.

_Dang it, _Sonic mentally scolded himself, whilst still trying to keep his cool. _Of course he wouldn't just let me take it. I'm being as gullible as Knuckles._

"What did you do to it?" Sonic asked.

"Not much," Eggman sarcastically assured him. "I just placed a small tracker on it. Under normal circumstances, my trackers don't last long when exposed to such high levels of radiation, but thankfully you arrived early. It's a good thing you brought all the way here then, isn't it?"

"So that's how those robots of yours found us so quickly," reasoned Sonic. He placed a hand to his chin before smiling and adding: "And I thought you had actually ambushed us." Sonic made a big show of wiping the back of his hand against his forehead. "What a relief!"

Eggman growled a little, but quickly regained his composure. Wanting to add more pressure, Sonic continued on.

"So, doc. Care to tell me what's going on here?" the blue hedgehog pestered. "You're putting yourself at a tactical disadvantage with this charade. I mean, hostages? Really?" 

"Merely a distraction, Sonic," Eggman countered. "When my plan is complete, not even G.U.N. will be able to stop me."

Robo Knuckles helpfully added, "Yes, hedgehog. Your inconsequential observations leave you unable to anticipate important future events. The Mystic Ruins base, for instance."

"Shh, you'll spoil the surprise!" Eggman urged.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Oh, just forget it. Are we almost to the part where I trash your robots and stuff?"

"I hate to skip to the end, but if you insist," Eggman said, and typed into his pod's console.

The doors to the Kailman Building opened, and numerous robots exited in battle formation. Like the Jetblade mechas, they were bipedal, although their other features were rather different. They did have boosters on their backs, but their exoskeletal bodies were designed for durability, not aerodynamics. Instead of blades, they had mid-weight guns with laser sensors attached to the scope.

More of them appeared from behind the nearby buildings, until they completely surrounded the square. The mechas marched into a wide circle, their weapons gleaming against the quick but intense flashes of lightning. It looked as though there were more than fifty of them, maybe almost sixty. To make matters worse, the light-armored Jetblade mechas, who finally caught up, entered the circle of mechas and surrounded Sonic.

"All right!" Sonic suddenly shouted, "Now we're talking!"

Eggman smiled callously. "Oh good. I'm not the only one who was looking forward to this."

The line of mechas as the other robots leveled their weapons at Sonic. Then they stopped, waiting for the order to attack.

A ring fell onto the ground, seemingly out of nowhere. The circular object flashed a rich gold, even in the sparse lighting. Hovering a few feet away, it gleamed teasingly at Sonic. A second ring fell, followed by a third. Sonic traced the motion of the falling objects to the peak of a close building.

On the edge of it stood Tails, who was hurtling the small golden hoops down in Sonic's relative direction.

"Sonic, get the rings!" the fox shouted, but gave a conspiratorial wink.

After taking notice of the signal, Sonic dashed to the nearest ring, and was quickly blocked by one of the Jetblades.

"Don't let him touch those!" Eggman shouted. The robots stomped over to what rings they could in order to prevent the hedgehog's access to them.

Sonic continued to dash towards the golden objects, then backed off as the mechas reactively guarded them. For the most part, this broke their formation, and they were now roughly scattered over the strewn rings. From the corner of his eye, Sonic saw Tails back away, and one of the rings glimmered oddly.

Without warning, Sonic sprang forward, and pounced onto a nearby mecha's head. Using it's shoulders like a springboard, he jumped several feet into the air, hoping that it would be enough. As the robots aimed their weapons, the rings gleamed bright yellow, and released static bands of electricity. Each mecha was temporarily stunned, and slumped lifelessly where it stood.

Sonic went to town.

Compacting in mid-air, he projected himself from one robot to another, sawing each into asymmetrical pieces of junk. Eggman watched as his archrival's blue spines sliced through his creations, all of which stood motionless like targets in a shooting gallery.

But, strangely, he didn't seem to be bothered by it. 

Sonic had just finished cleaning up the remaining robots when Tails quickly flew down to him.

"Nice going with the shock rings, buddy," Sonic congratulated as Tails met the ground. "I wouldn't have thought of that."

"We don't have time to celebrate, Sonic!" Tails insisted. "Eggman and Robo Knuckles are getting away"

Sonic looked over his shoulder to see the doctor making his getaway while more robots converged toward the square. Robo Knuckles followed behind him.

Pretending to be unconcerned, Sonic gave a shrug and said, "It looks like they're heading for the ruins. Don't worry, I'll catch them in time."

He was about to prepare for a quick dash, but Tails halted him. "Wait, Sonic! This is really important. Do you remember what shape that base was?"

Temporarily stumped, Sonic thought for a moment. "You mean the one in the Mystic Ruins?"

"Yeah, that one," Tails confirmed. "Did it look anything like a hexagon?"

Sonic tried his best to recollect on such short notice. One thing he could clearly remember was the intersecting corridors and hallways. "I dunno. It was all zig-zaggy and weird. But I guess it could have been. Why?"

The fox glanced at the escaping Eggman, as if calculating how much time they had to talk, then he quickly looked back at Sonic.

"I don't have enough time to tell you everything," Tails said. "But if that base is what I think it is, then Eggman must be trying to power something huge."

"Huh?" Sonic gaped. "Like a giant robot or something?"

Tails shook his head. "No, Sonic! I think that the entire base is some kind of generator!"

Sonic was stumped by that, and unable to think of what Eggman intended to use it for. What would be big enough to require so much energy?

"Listen, Sonic," Tails continued. "You have to stop Eggman and Robo Knuckles from reaching the base. If Eggman uses the Chaos Emerald, something terrible could happen!"

Taking another quick glance at Eggman and Robo Knuckles, Sonic judged that they weren't too far ahead yet. He could catch up to them in time.

"You go after them, Sonic," Tails affirmed. "I'll free the hostages. You worry about Eggman. I'll try to see if I can catch up with you later."

As Sonic looked at his friend he could see a strong, determined look in his eyes. If the fox felt fear, it wasn't visible to Sonic, who had learned to read the kit's expressions with ease. Matter of fact, Tails looked different. He looked...

_Man... _thought Sonic with a slight hint of melancholy, _Tails really is growing up._

"Don't worry, pal," Sonic said, finding himself. "There's no way I'm letting Eggman beat me in a race!"

Sonic gave a supportive nod, briefly taking notice of the responsible glimmer in Tails' eyes.

Knowing that there wasn't much time, Sonic turned to the street and ran.

**I'm sure it's obvious to everyone that this chapter is late. Extremely late. As a matter of fact, you probably thought that this story was dropped. It was not, and it is not. The truth is that I have temporarily lost interest in Sonic, although I have found my way back to the computer in order to continue this story. I have no reason to drop it, and will continue to write it as best I can. Scratch that – as best I have time to.**

**I'm glad you took the time to read this chapter, in spite of such a long update gap. On the plus side, it was a larger chapter in order to (or try to) mount the tension.**

**Facts for this chapter:**

**Metal Sonic fought Eggman (and won)!**

**Robo Knuckles did not work for Eggman.**

**Did I mention that Tails had lost his memory too? **


End file.
